ELI5: How did prostitution work before birth control? Would people "pull out?" Was there a type of abortion?

<hr/>**评论：** ELI5_Modteam: <pre>Hi, everyone! We're <a href="http://i.imgur.com/fDoK61O.gif">locking this thread</a> because the comments are becoming less and less civil and the thread has served its purpose. We've had to <a href="http://i.imgur.com/KeFQjaH.gif">remove comments</a> for violating <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/about/rules#">our #1 rule: Be nice</a>, and we've even had to <a href="https://gfycat.com/BountifulAmpleAffenpinscher">ban users</a>. Cheers!</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>pinkseason: <pre>interesting, i always thought it was two anatomical hearts together </pre>NolanOnTheRiver: <pre>I read that it was the shape of two half-hearts together</pre>pinkseason: <pre>yes Nolan, two haves equal one whole </pre>StellarHansolo: <pre>If you are ever trapped in a completely sealed steel chamber, with no doors or windows, and all you have is a wood saw and a 2x4 board, remember this handy tip to escape; take the board, and cut it in half. Two halves make a whole and you crawl right through.</pre>meddlingbarista: <pre>Don't be so hard on Nolan!</pre>: <pre>[deleted]</pre>Prometheus720: <pre>You fucking called him Nolan. That is incredible</pre>spirit_spine: <pre><blockquote> two haves equal one whole </blockquote> big if true</pre>BigY2: <pre>So much sass in one comment</pre>MiscBrahBert: <pre>Get fucked Nolan</pre>FixitFry: <pre><a href="https://youtu.be/CYNp03ZW2r0" rel="nofollow">And also...</a></pre>JMDeutsch: <pre>Based on responses below, I'm guessing highest poster referenced Silphium, the plant that ancient romans used as birth control to the point it went extinct. OP, any idea why comment was removed?</pre>Cruisniq: <pre>A very common misconception thanks to the net. He is correct, the heart shape we are a custom to is based on the berry not the picture of two hearts sown together that has been floating around.</pre>TrekkiMonstr: <pre>So many misconceptions here! These all are incorrect. It's actually based off on scientists' descriptions of the anatomical heart. Artists didn't want to pop open a corpse themselves, and pictures weren't really available, so that shape became the shape of the heart. Source: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5eedlt/how_did_the_heart_shape_come_to_be_when_it_is_so/">This AskHistorians thread</a></pre>PurpleVoltage: <pre>I've read that it's the shape of a woman's butt from behind if she's bent over</pre>Hephf: <pre>Its never good when the top comment is "deleted" lol. What did they say?! </pre>Butt_Putnam: <pre>I always thought it was an upside down ballsack</pre>Ezeckel48: <pre>Real answer is that no one knows for sure.</pre>CaptchaReadingRobot: <pre>I read it was the shape people's heads make when they kiss. I choose to believe this. </pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>tornado9015: <pre>I always thought it was the shape a girls butt and lower back make when she's bending over</pre>Fit_Wolf: <pre>I believe a teacher in highschool told us that the heard was derived from a woman spreading her labia. </pre>IShillForSocialism: <pre>What did he say?</pre>batcaveroad: <pre>Like a lot of symbols, it's popular because it works several ways. It's also a butt or balls depending on orientation.</pre>KingOfJura: <pre>Actually its just the shape of an ass upside down. Two hearts together look way different. </pre>lifesizepenguin: <pre>Looks like this guy pulled out toi</pre>Slight0: <pre>It's a woman's arse from the top. The heart shape pre-dates the anatomical understanding of the heart by a while.</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>allusernamestaken1: <pre>I read that it is a deformed cherry tomato. </pre>nihilesbian: <pre>It's an upside down butt, and it's Roman, not Greek.</pre>simon_guy: <pre><a href="https://i.imgur.com/6fNYa4tl.jpg">Just one</a></pre>haircurly: <pre>I always thought it was the just the shape of the heart </pre>Mispelled_: <pre>Pretty sure the <3 is a depiction of a girl's rear end and it just kind of stuck as a heart.</pre>Zekeroonie: <pre>I thought it was supposed to be boobs/butt</pre>AmericaNeedsBernie: <pre>heart is really a butt</pre>WatcherOTWall: <pre>I always thought it's because a frog's heart is actually kinda shaped like that</pre>Phylar: <pre>I always thought it was the artistic representation of the outline you see when two people kiss.</pre>torpedoguy: <pre>As explained by several here there were numerous contraceptive methods. Abortions existed in various forms, though their risk and effectiveness was rather varied. Taken early many herbal concoctions (read; poisons) could induce a miscarriage, assuming the pregnancy had not in itself already miscarried anyways (the most common form of 'abortion' is a nonviable embryo or fetus being flushed out; often perceived as little more than a late period) There was also, of course, temples. Virgin Births have always been a staple of religions (as has resurrection for anything demideity or above). The common claim to avoid any stigma from young unwed mothers was that Zeus did it. These children would be left to the temple, and while everyone understood what's really going on (except for some of the more naive) given the circumstances often involved it was extremely uncouth to not at least pretend. Later on this was replaced to a degree by convents. Girls caught "embarrassing" their families would be sent to the nunnery, where many would presumably discover a poor orphaned baby a few months down the road after a miracle diet. My own grandmother had extensive experience as a midwife for the nearby convent in 1930s canada: Many nuns would come to her small town for a 'spiritual retreat' from the larger cities and return after they'd lost some weight, discovering a poor abandoned child alongside the road. While it was more often first-time nuns visiting, she had some rather dedicated regulars. In some cases that was a bit of a problem; there historically has been much abuse of nuns by the clergy. Yes, that kind of abuse (estimated 40% of nuns) It was ... impolite to point out simple facts among the congregation though.</pre>abesrevenge: <pre>Pennyroyal tea was used in England. Also the prostitutes developed a technique where they would butter up their thighs and "trick" the man into using their legs while not penetrating the vagina. This was touched on in the book/movie "From Hell" about Jack the Ripper. Edit: source <blockquote> According to Alan Moore's notes for his own From Hell: The trick by which a prostitute would hold the penis between her thighs to simulate intercourse without penetration was allegedly a common one during the period (and unfortunately recorded in a source that I am presently unable to trace) stated that during twenty years working as a prostitute in the East End of London, she had only been penetrated twice the rest of the time fobbing the customer with the trick...' posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:50 PM on November 21, 2008 </blockquote> More here. <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/ask.metafilter.com/107433/What-did-19th-century-prostitutes-use-for-birth-control/amp">https://www.google.com/amp/ask.metafilter.com/107433/What-did-19th-century-prostitutes-use-for-birth-control/amp</a></pre>akacardenio: <pre>In Victorian England, sex outside would often take the place standing up (to prevent clothing becoming dirty) with the man behind the woman (known as a "thruppenny upright"* - "thruppenny" meaning "three pennnies" which is what it cost). The woman could (ideally if the man was drunk) hold is penis between her thighs rather than actually entering her to avoid pregnancy. *On a related note there was some coded language when soliciting sex. A man may explain to a women that he "wished to get to hairyfordshire, but only had thruppence (i.e. three pence) for the fare... For a prostitute this would obviously be a request for sex, but could otherwise (if necessary) be innocently explained as a request for money to pay for the fare to get to the county of Herefordshire.</pre>Dthibzz: <pre>Abortions have always been a thing, they were just pretty unsafe and could either kill you or lead to sterility. Different herbs have been used as birth control or to induce miscarriage. Sometimes animal intestines or treated linen were used as condoms until rubber condoms were made in the 1850s. You can still buy lambskin condoms if you have a latex allergy. Some cultures used different things to block semen, like sponges, citrus peels, crocodile poop, etc. Edit: Yes people, crocodile poop. Form a little cup, let it dry, you've got yourself a proto-diaphragm. </pre>Korhal_IV: <pre>In addition to all the answers submitted here about early birth control techniques, the cold truth is that prostitutes often did get pregnant. Sometimes there were social institutions that could help them care for the children, or well-off patrons who consented to do so. Other times, well, there's a reason they find <a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/history/discovery-mass-baby-grave-under-roman-bathhouse-ashkelon-israel-002399">mass graves</a> of <a href="http://www.livescience.com/15961-baby-graves-infanticide.html">infants</a> beneath brothels. </pre>wesley_crushers: <pre>In the days before birth control, and to some extent even now, prostitutes were viewed as a disposable commodity. In different stages throughout history, there have been different methods of performing abortions, and not all of them were successful. In some cases the woman died as a result of the attempted abortion, some died during childbirth, and still others were left mutilated, no longer capable of conceiving a child. There were various poisions taken in small does which were known to cause a miscarriage. The truth is that not many people lost any sleep when a prostitute died. Additionally, there are periods in human history when the average lifespan was around 35, but this statistic is skewed somewhat due to the high rate of infant mortality. Lastly, in some cultures if an unmarried woman was found to be pregnant, she was put to death. Prostitution may be the world's oldest profession, but both then and now, even with modern methods of birth control, it still has risks. In countries where it is legal, the risk to those performing it is lower than in countries where it is illegal.</pre>twanas: <pre>In Silver City NM, a house of prostitution survived legally because of territorial charter. It finally closed in 1978. You can read the story of Madam Millie in Max Evans' book by that name. I do not know if her early method of birth control is discussed, but a popular story is that, in the first half of the 20th century, coca cola was ideal. After sex, the bottle was shaken, inserted and allowed to spray intravaginally. The sugar and phosphoric acid content were said to kill sperm and bacteria. I knew Millie Cusey, but I never thought to confirm this </pre>kittymandrake3: <pre>There were "backstreet" abortions where prostitutes would see illegal and often unskilled abortionists who would use a long piece of wire to basically give her a uterine scraping. In olden days sometimes the infants were killed, or raised as bastard children of the prostitutes. Sometimes they'd just abandon them and leave them to be raised by orphanages. And there were always folk remedies, herbal concoctions used to cause miscarriages like ergotamine (a type of poison harvested from mushrooms related to LSD), although these methods were of varying effectiveness and almost always dangerous.</pre>catgirl1359: <pre>I'd have to dig up the actual sources, but I remember there being some theorizing that women often had fewer periods than we do now. Poor diet/nutrition, stress, manual labor, etc. could all contribute to women, especially poorer women, not having regular monthly periods. That reduced fertility could definitely have helped prostitutes out, along with all the other factors and methods mentioned by others.</pre>janus5: <pre>It's thought that the Silphium plant may have been an effective birth control/abortion drug. Demand for this purpose may have lead to its extinction in the 2nd or 3rd century BC. Interestingly the shape of the fruit/seed and the plants connection to love may be where ❤️ comes from. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium</a></pre>MaxThrustage: <pre>If you want a thorough and well-sourced answer, you should probably take this question to <a href="/r/askhistorians">/r/askhistorians</a>. There are a lot of good answers here, but without sources it is difficult to say which ones are actually true. (There can often be a big difference between what sounds reasonable and what is actually factual.)</pre>TheFotty: <pre><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentha_pulegium">pennyroyal herb</a> could be one method used. Hence the Nirvana song Pennyroyal Tea Sit and drink pennyroyal tea, distill the life that's inside of me</pre>sterlingphoenix: <pre>First, birth control has been around for thousands of years. Seriously. The ancient Romans had condoms. Second, women knew when they were ovulating, and if you were working as a prostitute you paid a lot of attention to that, and took some days off. And yes, if all else failed, abortions. </pre>mrwhappy: <pre>In Macbeth, the three witches add a list of weird, funky stuff to their potion. My favourite ingredient is "finger of birth-strangled babe ditch-delivered by a drab [prostitute]". It's sad, but fun in the context of the play. </pre>GhostFour: <pre>Humans have been using contraceptives and abortions for a lot longer than you might think. It usually consisted of creating a "sponge" type of plug primarily made from whatever herb deemed able to stop sperm from surviving and moving on to the egg. In areas near the ocean, actual sponges from the water were even used. Honey was the binding agent in a lot of the natural remedies probably because it was known to be clean and not harsh on the human body. I'm sharing what I remember from a brief discussion with an herbalist in a high school class 20 years ago so I'm sure there is more technical and accurate information available. </pre>doktorbenway: <pre>Archaeologists have found sewers beneath ancient brothels littered with infant bones. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6hVz6RzCkJcC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=sewer+beneath+a+roman+brothel&source=bl&ots=5XUI_ZpJox&sig=hJIceVPtlmFHh13tDWqCv2UKdKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8mMXV_I7UAhXIAsAKHfmlAwMQ6AEISDAF#v=onepage&q=sewer%20beneath%20a%20roman%20brothel&f=false">https://books.google.com/books?id=6hVz6RzCkJcC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=sewer+beneath+a+roman+brothel&source=bl&ots=5XUI_ZpJox&sig=hJIceVPtlmFHh13tDWqCv2UKdKA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8mMXV_I7UAhXIAsAKHfmlAwMQ6AEISDAF#v=onepage&q=sewer%20beneath%20a%20roman%20brothel&f=false</a></pre>pippabeemine: <pre>Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, supposedly had a smooth pebble in her cervix to prevent pregnancy, according to his memoirs. It was one of the things that condemned her, because it suggested that she wasn't a virgin when he married her. She obviously wasn't a prostitute but it might have been one way of preventing pregnancy? </pre>CntrlF8: <pre>Birth control has been around a lot longer than you probably think. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_birth_control">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_birth_control</a> In addition to the ancient methods listed in this article, I saw a documentary once where they discussed ancient egyptians boiling down the urine of (possibly pregnant?) female crocodiles and making basically an early version of the birth control pill. The urine contained the hormones necessary to prevent a woman from getting pregnant or something like that.</pre>RupertMcgee: <pre>An interesting question. I went on a tour of an old brothel once and they told us about a back room where they would perform abortions. Women would often die due to the abortion being performed improperly. I imagine people also practiced pulling out but then, as now, is often done improperly. It was a gruesome business. It still is but it was certainly worse in the past. </pre>smokyartichoke: <pre>Prostitutes have also traditionally been adept at various forms of trickery. For instance it was at one time common practice when they knew a client was drunk to position things in such a way that his naughty bits were thrusting between her pressed-together thighs, as opposed to actual penetration. Source: I used to bang a lot of hookers in 19-century England. </pre>jamred555: <pre>Here's an ask historians thread about the same issue <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1zfhrz/how_did_prostitutes_deal_with_birth_control_issues/">https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1zfhrz/how_did_prostitutes_deal_with_birth_control_issues/</a></pre>LettuceBhappy: <pre>Herbs have been used for centuries as birth control... pennyroyal, Tansy, blue and black kohas. Some women still use these as their primary form of bc. Information is limited but women who know their cycle and body use it successfully. </pre>jltime: <pre>Abortion and having the kid. Abortion has been around forever, in crude forms at least. Also birth control dates back longer than you might think. Pulling out, sheepskin and animal skin condoms, etc </pre>AssholePhilospher: <pre>Birth control has existed in many forms for awhile now, maybe over 15k years. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1zfhrz/how_did_prostitutes_deal_with_birth_control_issues/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1zfhrz/how_did_prostitutes_deal_with_birth_control_issues/</a> SOoo, the question is kind of impossibly broad since it spans a period up to thousands of years asking for how humans behaved. I suspect the general answer is prostitutes had more babies and gave them up to orphanages, raised them or perhaps just got rid of them. Abortion wasn't around, but ditching your baby goes back to before homosapiens. In all reality a lot of animals can abort their baby, it's just after the fact and far more brutal, so for the most part abortion has always existed and birth control has existed for at least thousands of years. Back then it's not like the law was far reaching or cared much about the interaction of the poor and there was no forensic science and children died all the time, so I don't think it would be hard to get rid of a child one way or another and pay no legal penalty. If you kicked you kid out generally there was no law against that, so the whole idea that you had to keep and raise your child by obligation of law did not exist for most of the time you are talking about. You couldn't outright murder you child, unless you had a good excuses like, DEMONS, but you could certainly just let the baby die and say WHOOPS and probably get away with it. Children were not that important like they are today, they were far far more disposable because they died a lot and the only way to raise them was to have a functional family which mostly meant a man bringing home some kind of pay. If you had to pick who died in your family, you'd pick the children usually and keep the wife since you can always make more children like that. It sounds horrible, but it's just practical survival. Humans don't grow up fast enough, so investing in them is a big gamble and if that investment starves the mother and father then it's not worth it, your trading two healthy and capable humans for one maybe capable human someday. Even primitive man could work out that probability after millions of years of practice. It's not just that the strong survive, it's that with slow maturing animals like humans time, the strong HAVE to survive or the herd/tribe dies with them. That's the assessment work our brains are constantly doing to make being social animals work. We weight each others worth in the form of contribution to the tribe. Most of our brain efforts are spent assessing each other for various things. Assessing the value of a child is just another survival trait, back in those days at least. Now, you could be more interested in 50 years ago than 5000 years ago, but you'd have to kind of limit the scope of the conversation a little to maybe get more detailed info. Like how did prostitutes of England in the 1500s do it or how did prostitutes in early America do it in the 1800s with limited birth control. How did prostitutes in Rome do it. I think you could get better info with more specific questions. </pre>Alouitious: <pre>I read somewhere that an early contraceptive method was to cut a lemon in half and stuff one half inside the vagina. It acted like a cervical cup and lemon juice is also an effective spermicide. Plus, when you're done you're all zesty.</pre>razumdarsayswhat: <pre>I know in the 19th century here in America, in the Five Points area of New York specifically, women would put pennies up their vaginas. It sounds strange until you realize that the modern day Paragard IUD is copper and copper is effective at creating an abortifacient environment. That being said: the modern day Paragard works in the uterus and I don't believe they could shove a penny past their cervix so I don't know the efficacy of said penny method. In brothels, at least, there were indeed children, though normally kept in the private living areas, not in the...erm... Business areas. Prostitutes did get pregnant. And I believe there were herbal remedies (not good for you ones) that they'd use to try to induce miscarriage or abortion... I don't know too much about that, though.</pre>RedViolet43: <pre>In the 19th century, women would often push a copper coin into themselves. The copper created an unfavororable ph for conception.</pre>imersial: <pre>When the Egyptians were around they used sponges. Also crocodile fecal matter was a form of contraception. There was weird shit. "Birth control" was kinda always a thing but less effective then I assume there were many pregnancies (but that's also a huge fetish for some so I doubt they made less money while pregs) </pre>tydestra: <pre>Medical texts on the subject have listed the use of pomegranates, junipers and rue among others plants and herbs. 13th century physician Peter of Spain wrote down over 26 different prescriptions for contraceptives.</pre>SCDude66: <pre>The "rhythm method" was well known by then too, not all sex results in pregnancy. But unprotected sex is always a roll of the dice. </pre>kjhwkejhkhdsfkjhsdkf: <pre>I'm sure you heard the tale that Coca Cola can be used after sex as a douche to kill off sperm. Apparently that comes from a 20th century way to cause an abortion. When a woman gets pregnant, a plug of mucus forms in her cervix to keep the womb sterile from vaginal bacteria. So women would take a glass bottle of Coca Cola, open it, put a finger over the top, shake it up and shove it inside. The force of the soda exploding would knock the plug aside, and shoot the soda into the uterus. This would introduce bacteria into the womb, along with a lot of sugar for food. The bacteria would multiply, feeding on the sugar, and eventually cause a bacterial infection which would kill the fetus. </pre>loki444: <pre>Lysol was marketed to women in the early to mid 1950's. <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/02/when-women-used-lysol-birth-control">http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/02/when-women-used-lysol-birth-control</a></pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>cutty2k: <pre>None of the top posts have mentioned "frottage". Basically, frotting is sexual rubbing, so a dude rubbing his dick bulge on strangers in a subway is engaging in <del>frotterism</del> frottage. It was not uncommon back in the day for a man to stick his dick between the pressed together thighs of a prostitute and finish that way. Edit: frottage is a great word</pre>cmcd77: <pre>Prior to the 15th century, some use of glans condoms (devices covering only the head of the penis) is recorded in Asia. Glans condoms seem to have been used for birth control, and to have been known only by members of the upper classes. In China, glans condoms may have been made of oiled silk paper, or of lamb intestines. In Japan, they were made of tortoise shell or animal horn. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_condoms">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_condoms</a></pre>growdammit: <pre>Coitus interruptus (sorry for poor spelling) is the Latin term for the pull out method and was documented in Ancient Rome. The ancient Egyptians also used crocodile dung as a spermicide. </pre>The_Elicitor: <pre>If I remember right the (ancient) Romans made an entire species of plant go extinct because it was an easy to obtain natural birth control</pre>MetroAndroid: <pre>There's a great old reddit post from years ago about exactly this where IIRC a historian was talking about an old brothel/bath house in Greece where they found dozens if not hundreds of infant bones lying at the bottom of where the public bath water would've been.</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>tnygard1: <pre>Condoms have been available since ancient times. <a href="http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/article/history-condom" rel="nofollow">http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/article/history-condom</a></pre>Parascuts: <pre>Probably there was not a certain way of doing things regarding the pull-out technique because men of that age didn't really care about what happened to the prostitute. In Greece even some decades ago prostitutes had dozens of kids that they sent to special centers. Vinegar was often used, as believed to be an effective way against pregnancy. On the other hand, it needs to be noted that condoms are not something new. In ancient Greece it is told that people used the guts of animals for that purpose. </pre>skyydawgg: <pre>I learned in my Archaeology class that ancient Greeks would use saffron as an abortive, in high doses it caused the body temperature to raise to levels unbearable for a fetus.</pre>TheMapesHotel: <pre>There are a variety of techniques for a woman to monitor her own fertility and know when she is most likely to get pregnant. It has been estimate but some studies that natural fertility planning is between 80-90% effective at preventing pregnancy if sex is avoided during the five most fertile days in a woman's cycle, which women used to track with more frequency than they do today. This technique is still used by women of certain religions that prohibit birth control use. </pre>asillynert: <pre>Various chemicals plants and other methods were use to force miscarriage most carried fair risk. Std's affected fertility along with bad nutrition topped off with their methods of forced miscarriage. Last but not least yes they would get pregnant but earlier (pre 1800s) they would just drop them in woods to die. It was actually accepted practice for even normal familys to leave unwanted children or disabled children to die. Once this was less accepted it was "pay someone to wetnurse and care for them elsewhere" fees never covered cost. Most realistically were just killing the kids themselves either through not feeding them enough or just killing them. Small amount orphanages (very rare only small time frame in which orphanages were open and were indiscriminate in who could stay) some raised in the brothel to work there later (depending on status of prostitute carrying them). </pre>Yamayamauchiman: <pre>If all else fails and the pregnancy comes through, basically make up a story about a deity coming down and impregnating you and then make sure everyone believes it. Note: If the child itself is never brought aware of the ruse, messiah like tendencies may occur and millenia-enduring religions can follow.</pre>lakeworths: <pre>Infantcide has been a harsh reality for a long time. Abortion and contraception since the scientific era have become much more reliable and safe. So yes there was abortion and contraception for the lucky and fortunate, but infantcide was a reality. It still is, which is why access to modern contraception and legal safe abortion is so important.</pre>HighQueenSkyrim: <pre>I've read of several ancient societies where some women wouldn't induce miscarriages (aka abortion), but that they'd become a "specialty" sex worker as a pregnant woman. A decent amount of men have that fetish (check pornhub lol) and are willing to pay extra. Then after, they'd sell the baby, send it to live with fam, or commit infanticide. There have been several mass baby burials (I think in roman, but I may be wrong) that are believed to be underneath former brothels. Historians assumed that it was mostly dead, healthy baby boys because the girls would be raised there in the brothels. </pre>kevincrazykid: <pre>Conjecture, don't quote me I'm not a medieval prostitute, but probably similar to what the Catholics do, i.e., menstrual cycle. In the event of pregnancy there are several natural remedies that terminate pregnancy I believe. Finally, if the kid survived everything and pop out good ol mom can just whacked him/her or give the kid away. <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2031727/Roman-prostitutes-forced-kill-children-bury-mass-graves-English-brothel.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2031727/Roman-prostitutes-forced-kill-children-bury-mass-graves-English-brothel.html</a></pre>SassyTeacupPrincess: <pre>In the American wild west prostitutes would use diaphragms. Often Silverdollar coins. During World War II in Hawaii prostitutes probably used a pessary and island women would make their own diaphragms out of the rinds of local fruits, possibly lilikoi. </pre>PartyPorpoise: <pre>As others have mentioned, forms of birth control and abortion methods have existed for a very long time. Another option is simple: sex acts other than PIV. The Moche civilization of Peru made a lot of pottery depicting figures in different sex acts, including anal sex, but depictions of vaginal sex are rare. Many archaeologists believe that this pottery may have been instructional, teaching ways to have sex without getting pregnant. (of course, there are other interpretations)</pre>LadyLomia: <pre>Herbs like Queen Anne's Lace, Neem, Blue Cohosh, and Penny Royal have been used as herbal contraception and abortifacients for centuries. Women would and some even do today drink a cup of tea before and after the act</pre>Raichu7: <pre>There were early condoms made from pig gut. I believe they were around in Victorian times and maybe even earlier so birth control has been around longer than a lot of people think.</pre>Swan_Induction: <pre>You are only really likely to get pregnant a few days out of the month. If you time when you have sex it is almost as effective as using condoms. If you add "pulling out" I suppose it would be even more effective. Plus, as others have mentioned, if you do become pregnant you could give the child away or have an abortion. I'm sure a lot of prostitutes just had a lot of children also. The death rate for children used to be absurdly high and it was not uncommon for women to have 15-20 children. </pre>MasterbeaterPi: <pre>In Victorian England, sex outside would often take the place standing up (to prevent clothing becoming dirty) with the man behind the woman (known as a "thruppenny upright"* - "thruppenny" meaning "three pennnies" which is what it cost). The woman could (ideally if the man was drunk) hold is penis between her thighs rather than actually entering her to avoid pregnancy. Don’t let this distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table.</pre>Maui_Boy: <pre>On a random tour in Alaska learning about the gold rush of 1848 the tour guide mentioned that ladies of that era would use half of an orange as a diaphragm. </pre>OG_Breadman: <pre>There's a passage in the Bible where god tells a guy to force his wife to eat something that causes a miscarriage because she cheated on him so I'd assume there was some type of herbal method. I think it was in the book of numbers, not sure tho.</pre>concerned_thirdparty: <pre>Romans allegedly had a plant or herb for birth control that they harvested/fucked into extinction.</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>RhynoD: <pre>Your comment was removed for the following reasons: <ul> <li>Too short to be a full explanation</li> <li>Guessing</li> </ul></pre>Gayatri-Mantra: <pre>Different cultures had different ways of dealing with unwanted pregnancy. In North America there is a plant called Black Kohosh that was used to induce miscarriage. From what I understand is that it really sucks, but I guess if women ar desperate enough, they will do what they have to do. There are other herbal treatments although I wouldn't recommend anything of the sort since things of this nature should be over seen by a doctor. Too many things can go wrong.</pre>Hasten_there_forward: <pre>STD can negatively impact fertility as well as poor nutrition and lack of health care. So there were probably less pregnancies to deal with too.</pre>Zahn1138: <pre>Women who were prostitutes for a long time without getting pregnant were probably infertile. Women who were prostitutes might get one or two kids but then get bad PID (sometimes asymptomatic) which would then cause Fallopian scarring and infertility. Plus there was always mercury, a good beating to the abdomen, and various other abortifacient concoctions that women were aware of.</pre>BeadyEyed123: <pre>Think Game Of Thrones but with loads of STDs. The show Hell On Wheels has a good perspective from the town brothel, as well. It takes place in post Civil War Wyoming. In both cases, the prostitutes were taken care of, but also "taken care of" in the Sopranos sense.</pre>musiceuphony: <pre>I'm too afraid to look up sources for this at work but I have also heard of I believe some pacific island cultures where the men would essentially make a new hole out of their penis. The hole would be plugged up with some kind of stopper until they needed to urinate. Can't get pregnant if your white tadpoles take a wrong turn out of the tunnel.</pre>Occams-shaving-cream: <pre>There have been various forms of abortion since ancient times, but also, whores had a lot of bastard children.</pre>Chaosgodsrneat: <pre>So, something that I'm not really seeing anyone mention is just straight-up infantacide. Roman fathers might drop unwanted babies down wells and it wasn't uncommon for daughters to be exposed in Greek city states. The Spartans were the most notorious for exposing any infants that failed to meet their exacting physical standards, but the practice was common throughout all of Greece. The difference is that the exposed Spartan children were all left out to die, while in other Greek city states, such as Athens, exposed children could be "claimed" by anyone willing to take the child in and feed and raise it. Of course, unwanted girls who were exposed in a city like Athens would either be left to die or would be raised for the sole purpose of proposition, legally a slave to whoever claimed them in infancy. This is one of the uglier facets of ancient life that, thanks to a combination of the ubiquity of Christian values and the advances of modern technology, we modern folk just don't have to deal with in our reality. Thank yer lucky stars you were born now and not 5000 years ago</pre>JohnnieRicoh: <pre>Juniper berries.I don't see it anywhere here <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=fGciDaOA9DQC&pg=PA191&lpg=PA191&dq=juniper+berries+abortion+history&source=bl&ots=ZJ0lkengNh&sig=w_gn2c3upyRMFkdMSoWfREKwI3A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjsi8C_io_UAhUK04MKHZblDY8Q6AEIDTAB#v=onepage&q=juniper%20berries%20abortion%20history&f=false" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.com/books?id=fGciDaOA9DQC&pg=PA191&lpg=PA191&dq=juniper+berries+abortion+history&source=bl&ots=ZJ0lkengNh&sig=w_gn2c3upyRMFkdMSoWfREKwI3A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjsi8C_io_UAhUK04MKHZblDY8Q6AEIDTAB#v=onepage&q=juniper%20berries%20abortion%20history&f=false</a> </pre>dunnkw: <pre>Actually if you read the book "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex *But Were Afraid To Ask," you will find a wealth of information about subjects like this and the misconceptions society gave them before more modern books were written on the subject. It's full of facts like "every ER doctor has treated a homosexual with a shot glass lodged in his rectum because gay men get drunk before they commit homosexual acts."</pre>dancainmed: <pre>Abortion is nothing new. It's actually mentioned in the Bible and not in a bad way like most Christian pastors would have you believe. It is supposed to be performed in the temple. Read Numbers 5:11-31 If America was really a Christian nation, there would be no need for abortion clinics. Women would get that taken care of in church, just like the Bible says.</pre>jackparker_srad: <pre>Lysol was originally marketed as a contraceptive, or, euphemistically as a "feminine hygiene product" Source:<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lysols-vintage-ads-subtly-pushed-women-to-use-its-disinfectant-as-birth-control-218734/" rel="nofollow">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lysols-vintage-ads-subtly-pushed-women-to-use-its-disinfectant-as-birth-control-218734/</a></pre>hypnodrew: <pre>There is evidence that British prostitutes under the Romans would simply <a href="https://www.seeker.com/infanticide-common-in-roman-empire-1765237924.html" rel="nofollow">murder</a> the children they were impregnated with after birth. </pre>zimmah: <pre>Where do you think the concept of child sacrifice comes from? I mean that's of course not the whole story, but in many ancient cultures, that happened.</pre>DeathBlackWish: <pre>I read in a book once that British people thought women could only get pregnant from having orgasms so if a prostitute got pregnant she enjoyed it and thus it wasn't prostitution. So much crazy logic.</pre>EscapeAndEvadeSteve: <pre>There was a passage in one of my history books in highschool that explored the phenomena of "coitus interuptus" (pulling out) and its applications in prostitution and avoiding religious practices. </pre>SixthUnderminer: <pre>I remember I read a journal that belonged to a prostitute in the early 1800's, and she described using a type of goat intestine as a condom when her johns paid for her services. </pre>TheBurbs666: <pre>I feel anyone interested in this happens to be in Cleveland check out the Dittrick medical museum at case it's free. There's a whole section dedicated to contriception. One of them I remember was something like wrapping the testicles of weasel around the woman's leg</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>jackster_: <pre>Birth control has been in existence since ancient times. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_birth_control">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_birth_control</a></pre>Owl_Towl: <pre>I heard in a science podcast that Casanova used to smeer his cock in lemon juice as he believed it would act as a kind of birth control.</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>sisthrowaw4y: <pre>It occurs to me that not a lot of people think about the term MIDwife. Literally one of the responsibilities of a midwife was to know how to abort an unwanted pregnancy. However, many were branded as witches and burned at the stake. History is rarely accurate especially I'm the middle ages,it goes really weird, because of mass LSD consumption from ergot. </pre>Mechasteel: <pre>Back before modern birth control when most people were farmers, children were incredibly valuable. A woman's worth was often measured by how many children she produced. Children were free labor and also your retirement plan, not like today when they are babysitting and educational expenses then just when they might become useful they move out.</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>RhynoD: <pre>Your comment was removed for being too short. Your answer is solid. Expand it into a full explanation.</pre>JWittobeast: <pre>Plants made certain abortion teas. It was common in China, I know that. They practiced "alternate sex", oral and anal. This still made people pregnant rarely (semen could drip down, espesically in anal sex), so it wasn't entirely safe.</pre>InDaTwash: <pre>Didn't people use to use sheep/pig intestines as condoms?</pre>herbys: <pre>First, for the last several thousand years condoms existed. Obviously they were very uncomfortable as they were made of animal entrails (the membrane surrounding the intestine, for example) or very thin leather, but they worked. But even before contraception it was known that the probability of pregnancy varied massively with the time of a woman's period. In fact it is practically impossible for a woman to get pregnant in the first few days after menstruation, and highly unlikely in the last few days. All in all a prostitute could have unprotected sex during half of her days with extremely low chances of getting pregnant. Combine that with rudimentary condoms and you have your answer.</pre>Autumnleaves201: <pre>Well, I'm not an expert and I'm sure there was forms of birth control. I do know, however, that not long ago researchers found a ancient Roman brothel and in the sewers below, they found hundreds of baby skeletons from where they dumped unwanted babies. If that tells you anything.</pre>Hasten_there_forward: <pre>STD can negatively impact fertility as well as poor nutrition and lack of health care. So there were probably less pregnancies to deal with too.</pre>AegnorWildcat: <pre>In Heywood's The History of Children, he quotes a priest in Italy in 1527 walking down the streets of his city and "the latrines resound with the cries of children who have been plunged into them". Infanticide was common in much of the world for much of history.</pre>tothewolves663: <pre>I'm pretty sure the first condoms came into the world in the 1400's (they were made of animal intestines). perhaps people just took the risk? abortions have always been possible, just very unsafe though</pre>bambooskeleton: <pre>I don't see any answers to the actual question which is how did a woman have a career as a prostitute without being constantly pregnant? Or was that even possible? Were they only short term hookers?</pre>cornonthekopp: <pre>People made condoms out of animal skin or intestines or they used cloth condoms. There was a wide variety of toxic brews that people would eat or drink. Apparently lemons work well.</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>RhynoD: <pre>Top level comments are for explanations.</pre>LightningPowered: <pre>YES, they did pull out. Onan was his name. Onanism, was what the method was called. I don't know what they did when pulling out DIDN'T work tho.</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>StoryAboutABridge: <pre>Your comment has been removed for the following reason: <hr/> <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/top_level_comment" rel="nofollow">Top level comments</a> are reserved for explanations to the OP or follow up on topic questions. Very short answers, while allowed elsewhere in the thread, may not exist at the top level. <hr/> Please refer to our <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/%7Bsubreddit%7D/about/rules" rel="nofollow">detailed rules</a>.</pre>adamcoe: <pre>They've had staircases for a long time, I imagine that was somewhat common method back in the day.</pre>TheVirileAether: <pre>They had condoms even in ancient times. They were just made with animal skin or intestines or whatever.</pre>strokesurviver52: <pre>My favorite lines about contraception is this; IN days of old when knights were bold and condoms weren't invented. They'd tie yon sock around their cocks and babies were prevented. </pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>StoryAboutABridge: <pre>Your comment has been removed for the following reason: <hr/> <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/top_level_comment" rel="nofollow">Top level comments</a> are reserved for explanations to the OP or follow up on topic questions. Very short answers, while allowed elsewhere in the thread, may not exist at the top level. <hr/> Please refer to our <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/%7Bsubreddit%7D/about/rules" rel="nofollow">detailed rules</a>.</pre>: <pre>[removed]</pre>StoryAboutABridge: <pre>Your comment has been removed for the following reason: <hr/> <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/top_level_comment" rel="nofollow">Top level comments</a> are reserved for explanations to the OP or follow up on topic questions. <hr/> Please refer to our <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/%7Bsubreddit%7D/about/rules" rel="nofollow">detailed rules</a>.</pre>lectumest: <pre>Very simple. Many children were born of prostitutes and were killed upon birth or lived lived short and nasty lives. The concept of birth control was either nonexistent, ineffective, or consisted of killing off the offspring at birth or selling it into slavery. We live in very enlightened times today. Our ancestors did not. </pre>

用户登录

今日阅读排行

一周阅读排行

最新主题