Italy Reinstitutes Popular Medieval Foundling Hospitals -"Revolving Crib" Seen as Lifesaver for Abandoned Babies

Richard Owen/Teresa Neumann Reporting : Sep 8, 2005
Times Online

Alarmed by the rising number of abandoned newborn babies, The Times Online is reporting that Italy is to revive the medieval practice of foundling hospitals, with special depositories where mothers can leave their unwanted children anonymously.

Addressing the disturbing rise of babies dying in rubbish bins, Grazia Passeri, the head of the Italian Civil Rights Association, said that the first modern "foundling wheel" would be installed by Christmas at the Hospital of Santo Spirito, one of Italy's leading hospitals on the Tiber embankment near the Vatican.

The first foundling hospital was established in Milan in the 8th century, with the concept spreading across Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. Founded in the 13th century as a hospice for Anglo-Saxon pilgrims, the Hospital of Santo Spirito in Rome was one of the first to install a revolving crib, and as late as the 19th century it was receiving 3,000 babies a year. Reporter Richard Owens noted that the original wheel is a museum piece today and "its successor will be heated and equipped with sensors to alert staff inside when a baby is placed in it."

The report describes the high-tech version of the "revolving crib" or "foundling wheel" as a rotating wheel, half of which is situated outside of the hospital and the other half inside. Staff inside the hospital, it notes, will turn the wheel to collect the infant without seeing who has left it.