BREFOTROFIO. – From βρέφος, “newborn,” and τρέφω, “I nourish.” An institution established to care for unrecognized illegitimate children, that is, children registered with the civil registry office as born of an unknown father and of a mother who does not consent to being named.
Before the establishment of the b., such children were all too often abandoned at church doors, in convent gardens, in those of hospices, and wherever there was hope that pious people, moved to compassion by the abandoned little being, would take it into their care.
The archpriest Dateo, moved by the fate of these children and prompted by the spread of these crimes, deserves credit for having offered in 787 a house of his own in Milan, situated near the church of S. Salvatore, to serve as a refuge for the poor abandoned infants. In the deed of foundation he expresses himself as follows: «Volo atque statuo, ut cum tales feminae quae, istigante adversario, ex adultero conceperint et parturierint, si in Ecclesia provenerint, continuo per Praepositum colligantur et collocentur in predicto xenodochio, atque nutrices eis providentur, mercede conductae, quae parvulos lacte nutriant» (L. Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Med. Aevi, III, Milano 1740, col. 588).
These two institutions, the first to be established in Italy, and founded by two ecclesiastics, represent the beginning of assistance for illegitimate children and therefore the beginning of those institutions that came to be called b. and that would gradually spread throughout Italy and the world.
Among the oldest b. should be recalled that of Bergamo, founded in 1100 by the Crociferi fathers; that of Naples, established around 1300 by a «Congrega» or «Fratria» on the occasion of the discovery of an abandoned infant on the threshold of the church of the Annunziata; and that of Rome, founded in the 13th century by Pope Innocenzo III. Abroad, among the oldest, mention should be made of the shelters and asylums founded at Montpellier in the 10th century, those of Marseille and Burgundy, and later those in Spain established by S. Tommaso da Villanova.
An important historical development was the introduction into the b. of the so-called «ruota», first established at the Montpellier asylum around 1480 and then, probably soon afterward, at Rome, at the hospital of S. Spirito, where it is still preserved as a historical relic.
As is well known, the «ruota» served to admit the child into the institution without the mother being identified. The «ruota» may be likened to a cylinder divided in two by a vertical partition, leaving two compartments—one in front and one behind—with the whole device revolving on a pivot, so that the child placed in it from outside could be transferred inside by turning the wheel itself.
At present, almost all the provinces of Italy have a b. By law, illegitimate children are admitted to these institutions, and the natural mother is permitted to accompany the child in order to ensure that the child receives breast-feeding.
In addition to illegitimate children born to an unknown father and mother, the law provides that children recognized by one of the parents, as well as legitimate children who, owing to special circumstances, can no longer be raised in the family environment (the parents’ poverty, the mother’s death, tuberculosis in the family, etc.), may also be admitted under special orders issued by the federations of the Opera Nazionale Maternità ed Infanzia and by special provincial welfare offices.
This expanded function in the field of assistance has meant that in recent years the most important b., such as those of Rome and Milan, have changed their designation from b. to «Istituto provinciale per l'Assistenza all'Infanzia».
A whole body of legislation governs the legal and health-care functions of these institutions. They must be equipped with facilities for housing healthy and syphilitic children, infirmary wards for quarantine and isolation, and clinical-analysis laboratories specially equipped for detecting hereditary syphilis.
The law concerning assistance to the illegitimate child does not disregard its moralizing function. It provides that the institution’s administration (D. L. 8 May 1927, no. 798), when public assistance is requested for an illegitimate child, must, in whatever manner it deems most appropriate, conduct confidential inquiries to establish the identity of the mother, in order, where possible, to ascertain her health condition, secure breast-feeding for the infant, and induce the mother herself to acknowledge the child. The midwife and physician who assisted the infant’s mother during childbirth are required to answer the questions of those entrusted with the inquiries. In the event of refusal, art. 366 of the Penal Code applies. It is strictly forbidden to disclose the outcome of inquiries conducted to establish the maternity of illegitimate children; where the relevant conditions exist, articles 622 and 326 of the Penal Code are applied.
The law also establishes that the mother or father may acknowledge the child at any age, while allowing the institution’s administration, when the information received or the passage of time provides sufficient grounds for considering the abandonment definitive, to entrust the child to married couples who, having supplied the necessary documents, request custody of a child.
The child may be entrusted either for paid custody, that is, through a monthly contribution that the administration grants to the custodian, whether a private individual or a residential institution, or for affective purposes, when married couples without children of their own wish to have a child to adopt.