Italy: Abandoned Babies and the Origin of “Esposito”

Updating an Old Way to Leave the Baby on the Doorstep

Elisabetta Povoledo (NY Times)

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…

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…

…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…

…The problem of unwanted newborns has been documented in Italy since Roman times, when babies abandoned next to a column in a forum were either taken home by a third party to serve as slaves or left to die.

A minority of the children would have the good fortune to be adopted.

And now we come to the origins of “Esposito” and some other common names:

Foundling wheels were institutionalized by a papal bull issued in the 12th century by Pope Innocent III, who was shocked by the number of dead babies found in the Tiber. By 1204, there was a wheel in operation at the Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome, next to the Vatican. A 14th-century home for abandoned children in Naples, annexed to a church, is now a museum about foundlings. Many common family names in Italy can be traced to a foundling past: Esposito (because children were sometimes “exposed” on the steps of a convent), Proietti (from the Latin proicio, to throw away) or Innocenti (as in innocent of their father’s sin)…

A few months ago, Nzingha published a very interesting post about the problem of abandoned babies in Saudia Arabia, and how the government deals with that problem. The Saudi government is torn between punishing women for illicit sex if they turn up at the hospital pregnant and single, and giving these infants a healthy start in life by being delivered in a hospital. Since women face a lashing or possibly a stoning if they try to check into a hospital to give birth, needless to say there aren’t many takers.

The Saudi formula is harsh; yet, in the US, babies are still being abandoned in garbage cans or drowned in toilets, even in states where it is legal to leave an unwanted baby at any hospital or fire station.

There’s no easy answer to this.