The History/Evolution of Birth Control *Ladies Only*

[Lady Day]

::This thread is Ladies Only::





*click on picture to go to the interactive presentation*

Newsweek put together a rather interesting caption on the evolution of birth control. Below are a few of the rather interesting benchmarks.

The one above sums it up for me. Religious or political opinions aside, the act of giving a woman control of her own reproduction is most profound.

That is a rather clever sign. They could of 'Thought Different' on that font, though.

Thoughts?

LD

 

[LizzieMaine]

Those who have access to old Sears or Wards catalogues from the thirties forward should flip to the drug section, where they'll find Ortho-Gynol and Koromex jelly being openly sold. The advertising copy was very delicate, but make no mistake, the gals of the day knew exactly what it was meant for. It wasn't discussed in public, but mothers and daughters covered it in their Private Talks.

When my mother and I had The Talk she told me in deadly seriousness all about certain uses for Coca-Cola that I had never considered. Turns out there's even been a serious medical journal study of this particular application, and the results may explain why she ended up with four kids.

 

[Viola]

The only context I heard about Coca-Cola from with my mother and grandmother was "don't ****ing believe such nonsense" and I thought originally that it was a facetious example.

They didn't really believe in douching at all though which my mother said was relatively forward-thinking of my grandmother? I don't know if that's true.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The only context I heard about Coca-Cola from with my mother and grandmother was "don't ****ing believe such nonsense" and I thought originally that it was a facetious example.

They didn't really believe in douching at all though which my mother said was relatively forward-thinking of my grandmother? I don't know if that's true.

Our family doctor when I was growing up (who I think was probably born around 1885) was evidently a strong promoter of douching -- the rubber bag always hung in our bathroom, and when I was old enough I was told what it was for.

It's important to keep in mind that most women of the Era got their gynecological advice either from their own mothers or from their Kindly Old Family Doctor, who was 99 percent of the time a middle-aged/older man who didn't exactly have firsthand experience in dealing with such things. So a woman of that generation who didn't go in for douching was definitely taking a stand against the conventional wisdom of the time.

My grandmother had a much more direct method of birth control -- she made my grandfather sleep in the kitchen.

 

[Viola]

My grandmother was interesting; she was a corseteer (spelling probably all wrong, sorry - one of the oldschool bra salesladies who could size you from across the room fully dressed) and was a big proponent of foundation garments to make your stuff do whatever it is you wanted to do - I saw her recommend everything from serious "suction" things to pasties depending on the customer and the outfit she'd want to wear it in - but she didn't believe in training bras ("what are you training them to do, tricks?") and she didn't believe in cleaning internally down there, saw both as unnecessary and the second, I believe, as damaging.

She only had two kids and she was very fond of my grandfather, though, and I don't know what she did believe in, only what she didn't.

 

[Lady Day]

-- the rubber bag always hung in our bathroom, and when I was old enough I was told what it was for.

Oh the rubber bag.
I grew up with one of those hanging on the bathroom shower curtain rod. I didnt really know what it was for until I saw it being used at age 9.

I was on the transitional generation, and there was always a box of Summers Eve in the bathroom cabinet. *Ick* There was nothing 'evie' or 'summery' about it.

LD

 

[SayCici]

In 1960, when birth control was made legal, the number of women going to college and completing that level of education absolutely skyrocketed, and really contributed to the furthering of the women's rights movement. The average age for marriage also began to creep up.

Those stem things and the LYSOL? Scary. I think it says a lot though that the effort to fill that need existed, and we had to start somewhere..

 

[kamikat]

I never had The Talk and got my info all from friends or health class. I think the pill has done alot for women, but I also think it's done alot to harm women. We now think of our cycles as a medical condition to be controlled. There are studies suggesting that hormones, passed as waste, are getting into our drinking water. I wish more effort was made to encourage non-hormonal birth control methods. Not to mention that non-hormonal methods tend to be less expensive. This is partly because of our messed up US health care/insurance issues. When I switched from the pill to an IUD, the insurance company paid every penny but had not covered anything of the pill's costs. It's still a political/feminist issue. Insurance companies will pay for Viagra but not the pill.

 

[Foofoogal]

this thread could get political real quick.

The funniest thing I ever heard about birth control was a lady told me she douched with ice water. I asked her if she did not know they froze those fishys and it didn't kill them. lol

vaginal scarring from Lysol doesn't sound too pleasant. eekk..

 

[LizzieMaine]

The thread won't get political if LD and I have anything to say about it. And we have something to say about it.

Legality of birth control was a state-by-state thing, and in many states information about contraception was legal well before the sixties. There was a Supreme Court ruling in 1936 that determined that the Federal government had no right to enforce any kind of national prohibition against it, in a case involving the importation of diaphragms from Japan by a New York doctor. So from the late thirties forward there was an increasing amount of information available to American women -- even the Ladies Home Journal, long the voice of the Respectable Middle Class Woman, was editorializing in favor of it.

In those states where there were laws on the books against the sale or distribution of contraceptive materials, these were often unenforced unless a test case was being pushed. Many manufacturers and distributors of contraceptive products got around these laws by slapping a label on their products stating that they were "sold for the prevention of disease," or that they were intended to "promote feminine hygiene."

 

[Lady Day]

We now think of our cycles as a medical condition to be controlled...I wish more effort was made to encourage non-hormonal birth control methods...It's still a political/feminist issue. Insurance companies will pay for Viagra but not the pill.

Thats a big part of the inequality. It goes back so far. Men and women are not the same. Never have been, never will be. Its that struggle of equality with these differences that still skews everything.

LD

 

[Foofoogal]

Just the name Margaret Sanger is political and controversial.
Just saying.

Carry on.

 

[Lady Day]

Then dont reply to the thread.

Just saying.
LD

 

[Jenniferose7]

Very interesting stuff! I always find it very interesting to look back and see how certain medical approaches to birth control, hygeine and health have evolved over the years. It's mindblowing when you realize how unhealthy some cutting edge practices of time are with our contemporary knowledge. But it is a process and we wouldn't be where we are now without them.

 

[MissAmelina]

".....eighteen pregnancies and eleven live births..." Holy Schnykies. After witnessing one firsthand, I cannot even imagine what it would be like to endure eleven of them and what it could do to your body. This makes me think of the opening sequence of Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" where the baby just drops right out of her.

I am very thankful that I got to learn about this stuff in 5th grade in the early 80's--at least the reproductive aspects. I think the actual birth control education came from my my gyno---I started going when I was 14 for painful periods and was put on the pill to regulate them...which saved me from *days* of cramping, migraines and vomiting every month....good times. I seem to recall a nurse from the district heath office discussing birth control with us in highschool....but back then there wasn't the whole "banana condom" demonstration as there is now.

Luckily I had/have a mother I could talk to about that stuff too, as it can be a touchy subject--although I wish anything regarding our bodies could be discussed openly. I am reading a series of books right now that are set in Victorian England, and meant to be anthropoligically correct--and it is NUTS reading the vague exchanges about sexual relations between daughters and mothers. Wait. I did not word that right. lol But you know what I mean.

My Grammy is 91 and was raised by parents (a doctor and a nurse) who founded a Nazarene College. She was the 2nd youngest of 8 children, but only had 3 herself...however, I have never been ballsy enough to ask her outright how *she* personally regulated that. Maybe next time I see her, I'll put in on the table and see what happens. She was a nurse too, and will talk openly about scientific/biological stuff. I've always admired her ability to be rational as well as spiritual.

I think I have a sex manual from the turn of the century around here somewhere too...let me see if I locate it and find any passages about controlling pregnancy...although there probably aren't any....

P.S. Coca Cola? It burns just swallowing it!!

 

[MissAmelina]

I almost forgot....I worked in an old drugstore once upon a time, and sorting the stock room one day, I found a few wooden boxes of "Pon Tam-Pons" that were tampons soaked in lye(?) and a few other chemicals. I'm not sure what they were for exactly, but I grabbed the women who worked there and we all examined the boxes with horror.

 

[Jenniferose7]

I almost forgot....I worked in an old drugstore once upon a time, and sorting the stock room one day, I found a few wooden boxes of "Pon Tam-Pons" that were tampons soaked in lye(?) and a few other chemicals. I'm not sure what they were for exactly, but I grabbed the women who worked there and we all examined the boxes with horror.

Goodness! Reading that is enough to make me want to cross my legs and curl up into a ball! LYE?!

 

[C-dot]

Goodness! Reading that is enough to make me want to cross my legs and curl up into a ball! LYE?!

Same with the Lysol douches

Some young women still believe old myths of birth control, ie. You can't get pregnant if: its your first time; you stand up afterward; you douche immediately after; etc. These old wives tales probably resulted from lack of knowledge once birth control came out - its amazing how they stand the test of time!

 

[kamikat]

An interesting note, according to http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/266799-overview, surgical tubal ligation also become safer and more economic (being covered by health insurance) during the 60s.

 

[LizzieMaine]

An interesting note, according to http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/266799-overview, surgical tubal ligation also become safer and more economic (being covered by health insurance) during the 60s.

That was an option offered to my mother after my sister was born, but the idea of it was so foreign to anything she'd ever heard of that she dismissed it.

The Lysol Douche, meanwhile, was always meant to be done with an extremely dilute solution -- the official recommendation was "a dram of Lysol to a quart of distilled water." A dram is one-eighth of a fluid ounce, but most women didn't have pharmacists' measuring tools right at hand, so there were a lot of problems with getting the solution right, and if too much was used, burns would result. Most women who did this used a few drops from an eyedropper in a hot-water-bottle full of water and hoped for the best.