Madri irregolari: l’esperienza dell’ospizio di maternità di Bologna dal 1860 al 1919

Beginning with the analysis of documents held in the Provincial Historical Archive of Bologna, this article reconstructs the history of «ospizio di maternita», annexed in 1860 to the centuries-old city brefotrofio, with the aim of addressing no longer only illegitimate children but also the women who carried them on their lap. They became centers of propulsion of policies and initiatives that intended to overcome the old and by now obsolete logic that placed these mothers in the category of “deviance”, and to recognize them as subjects towards which to provide forms of protection at a social and hygienic-sanitary level. The history of the Felsinea Institution will be compared with other structures established with similar aims and purposes on a national scale, within which new knowledge and practices in the field of obstetrics will be tested and developed.