When I was pregnant with Jari my first, I was really young - only fifteen. I was eating and vomiting, eating and vomiting - as soon as I stopped eating I lost it all, felt hungry and started again. I was suffering this for a long time when my grandmum said "You can do something for that. When you finish to eat, bite a piece of apple and keep it in your mouth sucking it. Do it for one or two weeks and after that you don't need it no more." It worked and when I was seventeen and pregnant of Jlenia I did it again and this time didn't have to vomit for three months.

When my mum was younger before she had kids, she used to have really big trouble with her periods, lying in the bed and shouting. Her mum gave her a soft-boiled egg to eat, followed by a small glass of marsala. I know this helps a little (but doesn't make the pain go totally) because my mum used to do the same for me.

When I was feeding my babies, my grandmum told me to drink one glass of wine per day to keep the milk coming. At this time also she wouldn't allow me to eat peas.

Before the law allowed abortion about twenty years ago, women used to go to midwives who would break their insides with a stick to provoke the abortion. Women who were too scared or not able to pay used to make a decoction with parsley and drink really much. For some it worked but for others it worked too well and they died with their kids because it's poisonous if you have plenty.

In Sicily we believe that when a pregnant woman craves a food, if they don't get it there will be a corresponding birthmark in that place - for example strawberry gives red marks, pork gives brown hairy ones etc. Women will touch their bum or armpit when they want something so the mark goes somewhere that doesn't show. This is a really powerful belief of everyone - even the doctors agree!

My brother Stelvio has cappuccino on his bum (my mum remembers wanting the cappuccino and touching her bum) and you can see the strawberry (angioma) on Jlenia's forehead in this picture before it was cut off (Stelvio won't let me put a picture of his bum!) I was going mad for strawberries when I was carrying her, and her skin was allergic to them until she was a teenager.

All this means that pregnant women can have everything they want - they will open a shop for you in the middle of the night and the farmers will let you take the fruit from the trees. Of course all the women take advantage and it's all a big game. When you are pregnant even your husband gives you what you want, and if the police catch you speeding because you have to get something for your pregnant wife, instead of giving you a fine they help find it. So there are many more pregnant women than babies!!