Iria

In Italy, drop-off windows for unwanted babies have been a last resort for desperate mothers since medieval times. Now they're getting high-tech help.

The Northern Italian town of Padua recently inaugurated a "cradle for life" (culla per la vita) hoping to curb incidents of babies dumped in trash bins, open fields and public bathrooms. The National Association for Adoptive and Foster Families, or Anfaa, estimates that 400 newborns are abandoned in Italy every year, with a 10 percent yearly increase.

From the 1400s until 1888, women left newborns in Padua at a foundling wheel in front of the Ognissanti Church. Outside the church, they settled babies onto a sort of lazy Susan that, with a spin of the wheel into an orphanage run by nuns, they hoped would ensure unwanted children a decent life.

Today's baby window, just around the corner in Via Ognissanti 70, opens onto the administrative offices of a shelter for single mothers run by a nonprofit group called Opai-Seef.

It works like this: When someone opens the metal flap on the street, an alarm sounds upstairs notifying social workers, who are available 24 hours a day. The mother then sets the baby inside and, after a two-minute interval, a weight-triggered sensor sends another, louder signal.

Once the baby is inside, the box warms up and sends a call to a nearby ambulance service.

For now, it looks more like a vintage bank-deposit slot than a life-saving incubator, but the resemblance should fade next month after a multilingual sign replaces the temporary sticker on the front.
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Read More / Source: Wired News