Saving Babies in Rome

I've never heard of this...
Updating an Old Way to Leave the Baby on the Doorstep

In the Middle Ages, new mothers in Rome could abandon their unwanted babies in a “foundling wheel” — a revolving wooden barrel lodged in a wall, often in a convent, that allowed women to deposit their offspring without being seen.

Now a Rome hospital, the Casilino Polyclinic, has introduced a technologically advanced version of the foundling wheel — not at all a wheel but very much like an A.T.M. booth. For the first time a new mother left her baby there on Saturday night, and on Monday the child, a boy about 3 months old, was doing well, said Dr. Piermichele Paolillo, who directs the neonatal unit at the hospital.

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As in bygone days, it is possible for a woman to leave a baby without being seen, but the moment the child is abandoned an alarm goes off in the hospital’s emergency room, ensuring that the baby receives immediate first aid from a team of specialists.

“This is the foundling wheel of the third millennium,” Dr. Paolillo said. “It’s still a simple idea, but now it’s part of a neonatal intensive care unit, not a convent.”

Rome is not alone in the initiative. Modern foundling wheels have made a comeback in various places in Europe in recent decades, particularly in Germany. Switzerland, the Czech Republic and other European countries also have drop-off points for unwanted newborns.