Foundling wheels were roughly two feet tall and were located on a church’s street-facing wall. From the outside, they looked like rectangular windows; however, they were actually rotating cylinders, just large enough to fit a newborn baby.
Foundling wheels were created to protect at-risk babies, while preserving the anonymity of their mothers. Many towns and villages in twelfth-century Italy faced economic hardship, making it difficult for families to provide for their children
After much contemplation and typically under the veil of nighttime, mothers would place their babies into the cubby and pull a string, ringing a bell on the other side of the wall. This bell, which operated at all hours, would alert, or wake, the nurse on the opposite side.
The nurse was either a nun who lived in the foundling room of the church or an older volunteer woman from the town or village. The child is found when the bell rings, hence foundling
When the mothers dropped the babies off, they would, sometimes, attach notes assigning the baby a local wet nurse: themselves. This way, mothers could visit and nurse their children, with the church alleviating the financial burden of the baby’s other needs.
No more foundlings
In the founding wheel
No more ancestry for anyone
To steal
A revolving crib set in a convent’s wall
Drop an abandoned baby,
hoping they don’t fall
Anonymously and safely
it was her only prayer
Hoping that behind the walls,
someone kind would care
A child’s life is dictated by a Mother’s hand
The founding wall rescued thousands of babies
in all diverse lands
Diseases or disabilities sometimes came into play
Just drop the baby in the founding wheel,
Forever now to stay
The founding wheel stole the child’s identity
But in honesty, it was the safest place for baby
Later replaced by institutions that stepped up
To the plate
Adopting babies quicker, with a
Minimal wait
The foundling walls invention
Fulfilled its good intentions
Ancestry was forever lost, for those in the
founding wheel
Now thanks to 23 DNA and me, theirs no
lineage left to steal
