Why are there so many Italians named Esposito and Abbandonato? Because a very few of those orphans survived.
England and France and Germany had “angel makers” - women who took in babies whose mothers could not care for them, and then did not care for them.
The rural French sent babies by the wagon load to orphanages in Paris.
When Christian societies were poor, Christianity condemned fornication, which might have stopped the conception of some unwanted children, but did nothing for those conceived in marriage, and funded some foundling hospitals and orphanages, where the chance of survival was perhaps better than in an alley or on a hillside.
What created childhood was wealth.
BTW, a ancient Greek writer noted that the Jews were the only people who did not expose their children. I wish I could give the citation - I cannot find my book on orphans and abandonment.
Which brings us to the unforgivable lack of citations in this article.
The Kindness of Strangers: The abandonment of children in Western Europe, John Boswell
The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, Graham Robb
We have abortion in Christian countries too, but do you blame that on Christianity?
BTW, a ancient Greek writer noted that the Jews were the only people who did not expose their children.
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One of the great abominations that the ancient jews fell into from time to time was child sacrifice. they got the practice from the surrounding caananites. these caananite peoples were the founders of the carthegenian empires around the Mediterranean. They grossed out the Romans because they sacrificed their own children to their gods.
BTW, a ancient Greek writer noted that the Jews were the only people who did not expose their children. I wish I could give the citation - I cannot find my book on orphans and abandonment.
It seems that the Jewish appreciation of children dates from very early: "Be fruitful and multiply."
David Smith in The Life and Letters of St. Paul cites Sanhed. xxxvi. 2. as saying "For it was required, among the qualifications of a Sanhedrist, that he should be not only a married man but a father, inasmuch as one who was softened by domestic affection would be disposed to mercy in his judgments."
As an aside, I wonder if Paul's training for the Sanhedrin was the source of his commandment that all Bishops of the churches be married and have children.