Moves are under way to introduce modern equivalents of the medieval 'foundling wheel' at hospitals all over the country after one such device in Rome saved a three-month-old baby at the weekend.
The system set up at the Policlinico Casilino hospital is a far cry from the wooden wheels that used to be built into the doors of convents to allow desperate young women to abandon newborn babies anonymously.
Just outside the Rome hospital, which is in a poor part of the city, there is a heated hut containing a cradle. Light sensors installed on the inside alert hospital staff to the arrival of a baby.
The sensors were activated for the first time on Saturday when a baby boy was left there. He has since been given the name Stefano after the doctor who first took care of him.
The incident drew widespread attention and gave a boost to a long-running campaign calling for similar provisions at many more hospitals.
"We will study ways to encourage their use in other cities," said Health Minister Livia Turco, referring to a plan for improved maternity care her ministry is preparing.
"This is an intelligent solution, a good alternative to abandoning babies on the street," said Family Minister Rosy Bindi, whose ministry is also working on the plan.
Prompted by public concern over the number of babies abandoned soon after birth, at least eight modern versions of the wheel have been set up recently in cities up and down the peninsula.
Italian dailies frequently report cases of newborn babies being found in roadside rubbish bins and an apparent rise in the number of these cases was one of the reasons some hospitals decided to offer an alternative.
Most of the women who leave babies in dustbins these days are believed to be immigrants, many of them in the country illegally and therefore scared to go to a hospital for fear of being turned over to police.
Responding to the general support for the modern baby-wheels, the top health official of the Lazio region said on Monday he would begin moves to get the systems installed at all maternity hospitals in the region.
According to Grazia Passeri, who has been battling rubbish bin abandonments for years, the number of babies disposed of in this way is probably ten times the number of those that are found.
"We have to face the fact that a lot of women simply cannot cope with being mothers or else they become pregnant by accident or through rape," she said.
Until the early 20th century, it was common for a desperate mother to lay an unwanted child on the horizontal wooden wheels which were half inside convents and half outside.
A nun on the inside would turn the wheel, bringing the baby inside where it could be cared for while the mother could slip away without being seen unnoticed.
By law any woman has the right to give birth anonymously in all Italian hospitals, but Rome health officials said not all women are aware of this.
