The Royal Hospital of Lisbon - Foundlings and Wet Nurses (1786-1790)

“For the poorer households in society, the child is truly a threat to the very survival of the parents. Therefore, they have no choice but to get rid of their children. They abandon them in the hospital, which, as we will see, leaves the child with few chances of survival, (…).”

Elisabeth Badinter

The Uncertain Love: A History of Maternal Love (from the 17th century to the 20th century), p. 70