A History of Birth Control

a history of birth control through most of history pregnancy and childbirth were very dangerous undertakings for women in medieval Europe one in three women died during their childbearing years and one in four children it did not live to see their first birthday even when both mother and child survived the ordeal of birth women were not always able to provide for a child and in most cultures pregnancy outside of marriage was considered a great sin and often resulted in the shunning of the woman and the child while the man got away scot-free it is no surprise therefore it that women throughout history have been trying a wide variety of methods to prevent conception some worked but most did not and many were dangerous and frankly disgusting it should go without saying don't try any of these historic birth control methods at home a variety of contraceptive methods were recorded in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt most methods involved pessaries substances or objects that were inserted into the vagina Mesopotamian women used small round smooth stones the cocooned papyrus from 1850 BC and the Ebers papyrus from 1550 BC both described pessaries of honey acacia leaves and lint to block sperm acacia does have spermicidal qualities and is used today in contraceptive jellies so it seems the ancient Egyptian women were onto something with that one less effective or the use of honey sodium carbonate and crocodile dung the Bible describes the use of coitus interruptus also known as the withdrawal method or the pull out and pray in the book of Genesis Onan spills his seed on the ground so as not to father a child with his deceased brother's wife Tamar though God killed him for it Silphium a species of giant fennel was popular as a food seasoning and as an oral contraceptive in ancient Greece and the Near East the plant only grew on a small strip of land near the coastal city of Cyrenian modern day Libya and all attempts to cultivate and elsewhere failed it was reported to be highly effective and became extremely desirable but its scarcity meant that by the first century AD it was worth its weight in silver and eventually the plant went extinct because Silphium no longer exists we have no idea if it was actually as effective as the ancients claimed several other botanicals were used as contraceptives in ancient Greece some taken orally some used as pessaries they included asafoetida a close relative of Silphium Queen Anne's lace willow date palm pomegranate pennyroyal Artemisia mer Andrew several of these plants have been confirmed by modern researchers to have anti-fertility properties Queen Anne's lace is still used today for birth control in India however many of these plants including Queen Anne's lace are also highly toxic and ancient women had to be very careful about the dosage they used to avoid injury and even death lemon juice or even half lemons have been a perennial favourite throughout most of history the acidity offered some spermicidal protection but again not very comfortable bronze pessaries were popular among the upper-class romans and had some effectiveness as a barrier method probably the most safe and effective birth control method known to the ancients was coitus interruptus philosopher aristotle recommended applying a cedar oil before intercourse this may have had some effectiveness in gumming up the works but would have been far from reliable Hippocrates known as the father of Medicine wrote a text called on the nature of women which recommended that women who did not desire to conceive should drink copper salt dissolved in water he claimed that this would prevent pregnancy for a year ancient medical writer saw news of Ephesus later pointed out that copper salt was not only ineffective but also incredibly toxic and dangerous he attempted to list reliable birth control methods rejecting the use of superstitions and amulets in favour of common-sense mechanical methods such as vaginal plugs made of wool and covered in oils or other gummy substances the effort is appreciated but most of his recommendations were bunk one of his more ridiculous ideas was that women should hold their breath during sex and sneeze afterward in the 7th century BC Chinese physician master Tong Swan documented Cuates reservist or sex without ejaculation and coitus obstruct us or preventing the release of semen during intercourse the primary goal here was to preserve a man's yang or masculine energy see yin yang yang was thought to be reduced through engagement with the female yin via sexual intercourse but these methods did have the added potential benefit of preventing pregnancy in women Chinese concubines would drink a mixture of lead and Mercury to prevent pregnancy unfortunately the side effects of these toxic substances included sterility brain damage kidney failure and even death glands condoms or those that covered only the head of the penis were used by the wealthy in China they were made of oiled silk paper or lamb intestine in Japan they were made from tortoiseshell or animal horn Indian philosopher Vatsyayana who wrote the Kama Sutra presented various contraceptive methods including coitus obstructive other methods popular in India in ancient times included a potion made of powdered palm leaf and red chalk as well as pessaries made of honey rock salt II or the seeds of a palasa tree the Prophet Muhammad did not approve of contraceptive measures however ninth and tenth century Muslim physicians documented a few ways in which women might avoid pregnancy if it might be dangerous for their health these included coitus interruptus as well as several pessaries using elephant dung cabbage pitch and rock salt superstitions in morocco suggested that stepping three times over the grave of a recently buried corpse or drinking water used to wash a corpse would prevent pregnancy all methods of avoiding pregnancy were and still are deemed sinful and immoral by the Catholic Church but this didn't stop women in the Middle Ages from attempting to grasp some control over their lives and trying at various methods to prevent conception as men of the church did most of the writing in this period the specifics of medieval birth control were usually not recorded however there is evidence that herbal potions were known to midwives and passed between women by word of mouth various recipes were thought to have the power to encourage or prevent pregnancy and the ever-popular coitus interruptus was also recommended in 1484 Pope Innocent the eighth issued a papal bull speculating a vast network of witches throughout Europe the texts accused these sorceress of having slain infants yet in their mother's womb and of hindering men from performing the sexual act and women from conceiving the malleus Maleficarum or the hammer of the witches a book which spelled out how to find and persecute sorceress 'as accuse these women of stealing men's penises of course many local midwives and healing women were accused of being witches and of using forbidden knowledge granted to them by the devil in the 16th and 17th centuries some 60,000 suspected witches were put to death in Europe and most of their knowledge was lost with them exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of a baby's life is thought to be up to 98% effective in preventing ovulation in the mother though many women with two children very close in age will warn you against relying on this method but for women in the past with no access to other contraceptives this break between pregnancies could be very valuable in medieval Europe the wealthy began to see breastfeeding as something that was beneath them there was also pressure on women of status to produce as many children as possible and to return to the marriage bed quickly after a delivery especially if the first child had been a girl therefore breastfeeding was outsourced to wet nurses lower-class women who were hired to nurse and care for a wealthy woman's child in 1490 the first outbreak of syphilis hit Europe this dreadful sexually transmitted infection causes painful and humiliating sores and growths on the face and body and often results in death the threat of syphilis did have one upside though men especially those who frequented prostitutes and brothels began to take precautions to protect themselves and some of these methods had the added benefit of preventing pregnancy condoms made of linen or sheep intestine and soaked in chemical solutions were popular in 1666 the English birthrate commission blamed the recent downward trend in fertility on the wide use of condoms this report coined the term condom which is an anglicisation of guató knee the Italian word for glove legendary Venetian liver Giacomo Casanova wrote about using and reusing an assurance cap which he tied on with a blue satin ribbon here he is testing it for holes by inflating it Casanova was also a fan of using lemon rinds as cervical caps the church condemned the use of condoms as they prevented pregnancy and were thought to lead to greater promiscuity despite the opposition condoms became incredibly popular in the 18th century and could be purchased in pubs barbershops chemists and theaters throughout Europe and America they were primarily used by the middle and upper class as they were rather expensive and one condom would be reused many times possibly with multiple partners in 1839 Charles Goodyear discovered the process of vulcanizing rubber to make it elastic the first rubber condoms were manufactured in 1855 they had a seam and were as thick as bicycle intertubes in the 1860s the American Civil War meant lots of young men moving around the country and visiting prostitutes rates of sexually transmitted infections skyrocketed to fight the growing epidemic sex education classes were introduced into public schools for the first time but taught that abstinence was the only way to prevent disease in 1873 the Comstock laws criminalized obscene and immoral materials and literature from being posted by u.s. mail severely limiting the knowledge and availability of birth control many other countries passed laws impeding the manufacture and promotion of contraceptives moral watchdog groups considered sti's to be punishment for sexual misbehavior the stigma against victims was so great that hospitals often refused to treat people who had syphilis women had to resort to using household items like Lysol and coca-cola as post-coital douches which they incorrectly believed would kill sperm advertisements for Lysol even promoted the product as a way for women to protect their married happiness in 1798 Thomas Malthus wrote in an essay on the principles of population that human population expanded until all resources were used up and that only two measures kept population growth in check rising death rates due to disease war and starvation and preventative measures including birth control postponement of marriage and celibacy he argued that preventative measures could ensure a high standard of living for all while also increasing economic stability his ideas heavily influenced the burgeoning feminist movement in the 1870s early feminists coined the term voluntary motherhood the Malthusian League was established to promote public education about family planning and advocate for making contraception legal the founders Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh published in Britain a book called the fruits of philosophy or the private companion of young married people written by American doctor Charles Moulton which explained various methods of birth control Besson and Bradlaugh were persecuted by the British government for spreading contraception knowledge their trial drew significant public interest and the sale of the book skyrocketed by the late Victorian era women throughout the industrialized world possessed life-changing knowledge of birth control with the mass Mike raishin from the agrarian countryside to industrialize cities large families were no longer needed to run a farm women were deciding to marry later and have fewer children the birth rate in the UK dropped 29% between 1860 and 1880 vulcanized rubber condoms and diaphragms were the most popular birth control methods in the u.s. Margaret Sanger popularized the term birth control emphasizing that women should have control over their own reproductive lives in 1916 she opened the first contraceptive clinic in the US it was shut down after only 11 days and Sanger was arrested but her trial attracted public interest and funding for her continued fight to get women access to birth control in 1921 Sanger founded the American birth control league which later became Planned Parenthood her colleague across the pond Marie Stopes opened the first permanent contraceptive clinic with the support of the Malthusian League they offered education and cervical caps as their primary form of birth control Sanger Stokes and others did a great deal to remove the stigma of birth control and get women access to life-changing and life-saving medical care in World War one sexually transmitted infections among the troops was a serious problem the German military had been issuing condoms to their soldiers for decades providing them with significant protection in the neck and neck conflict in fact the US and Britain were the only countries that did not provide condoms to their soldiers they realized that to win they needed to loosen up their prudish practices and by the end of the war US and British troops were also issued condoms latex rubber was invented in 1920 latex condoms were stronger thinner had a shelf life of five years instead of three months and unlike vulcanized rubber which was manufactured with gasoline the factories were much less likely to burst into flames in the Roaring Twenties condoms were sold widely in slick packages with catchy names like Sheik Ramses and Trojan and soldiers returning from the war knew how to use them german-jewish dr. ernst graefenburg the g-spot is named pioneered the intrauterine device or IUD in the 1920s and 30s this device is inserted inside the uterus by a doctor and provides long-lasting birth control until it is removed graph index work was suppressed by the Nazi regime which considered a contraception a threat to the Aryan race he moved to America where he and his colleagues continued to develop IUDs which are now used by about 7% of women in the u.s. in the 1950s scientists Gregory Pincus and John Rock with support from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America developed the first hormonal birth control pills the pill became widely available in the 1960s and is now the most popular form of contraception this effective and safer form of birth control sparked the women's liberation movement which saw record numbers of women attending college entering the workforce and choosing their own paths in life thanks to those who have gone before us women are now able to choose when and if they want to have children Noah corocut I'll dung required in honor of International Women's Day I will be donating 20% of the ad revenue from this video to Pathfinder international for over 60 years Pathfinder International has been bringing life-saving contraceptive STI prevention and maternity health care to women in developing countries around the world more than half of women in developing countries want to use contraceptives but many don't have access to them and 308,000 women die each year from pregnancy related causes to learn more about the great work Pathfinder international is doing click the link in the description if you enjoyed this video please like subscribe comment your thoughts and check out my other royal history videos if you really want to help please consider supporting me on patreon a link is in the description thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 606,082

Keywords: history, documentary, royalty, sex, bbc, middle ages, medieval, british history, scandal, pregnancy, feminist, women, obgyn, obstetrics, 9 months, labor, delivery, medical, medicine, midwife, doctor, giving birth, birth control, wwi, condoms, thomas malthus, malthusian league, Annie Besant, victorian, ancient egypt, ancient greece, ancient rome, hippocrates, medical history, Margaret Sanger, g spot, Planned Parenthood, the pill, Marie Stopes, motherhood, women's liberation

Id: Z-isi9Vw5l8

Length: 17min 44sec (1064 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/scheckydamon]

In the days of old

When Knights were bold

And rubbers had not been invented.

They wore a sock upon their cocks

And thus the babies were prevented.

[u/_Punko_]

But in all seriousness, why is anyone still arguing against women having complete control over their own bodies?

One day, we will fully achieve this level of civilization and finally leave the dark ages behind us.