The Early Forms of Birth Control - Essay Example

Module One Significant Invention INTRODUCTION It is a common fact for past scientific inventions and technologies to be d byvarious experts as the main discoveries that have most positively transformed human existence. While the effect of inventions such as electricity, and more recently, the internet, cannot be disputed, these elements were far less effective than the birth control pill. Since the dawn of time until the 1960s, half of the world’s population, women, were negatively affected by issues regarding human reproduction. The birth of any child ought to be a time of rejoicing for the new parents as well as their relatives. However, for women in past centuries, marriage and childbirth became something a kin to entering into a contract of indentured servitude and agreeing to an early death caused by the harmful effect of repeated pregnancies on the human body. Thesis Statement - While technological advances such as electricity and the internet improved the lives of people in many ways, they did not really contribute to stopping the continued systematic oppression of more than 50% of the world’s population. The Early Forms of Birth Control In the ancient world, many women and a few men thought seriously about how to create a product that could stop women from conceiving every time they experienced sexual intimacy. It was an understood fact, even then, that continued pregnancies were greatly harmful to the bodies of women. There have been records found to verify that crude forms of condoms were made out of the intestines of animals in ancient Greece. There were also poultices formed from as assortment of strange substances which were used by women. Moreover, most of these methods were unsuccessful in stopping pregnancy. Birth control was viewed as being a taboo subject that ‘respectable’ women would not engage in. This was probably because it was presumed that it was commonly assumed that only prostitutes had the need to use birth control methods in order not to conceive with all the men they had sexual relations with. Such false ideas greatly harmed the female populations and were the main reason why women died in such large numbers at young ages during childbirth or as a result of continued pregnancies. Birth Control in the Early Days According to Engelman, from 1800 to 1900 in the United States alone, nine out of every 1000 women would lose their lives during childbirth (Engelman, 24). The American government actively discouraged the distribution of any information regarding matters to do with controlling pregnancy or spacing the numbers of children that a woman had. Engaging in such activities was seen as being in support of the propagation of pornographic activities. Moreover, the American government did not say or do much about the many women who were dying on a daily basis during childbirth. As speaking frankly about reproductive matters was something that could be prosecuted under state as well as federal laws of the time, women in the 18th century did not know or understand much as concerning their bodies or reproductive systems. For women’s lives to be improved, they have to be able to control their reproductive lives. In the 18th century, as well as in all centuries prior, there were different methods that some couples resorted to in order to prevent pregnancy. In some families, a married couple would actually visit relatives separately as a way of dealing with the temptation to engage in sexual intercourse. A few couples tried to use abstinence, even when they were living together, to limit the birth of children. Many couples, however, preferred the withdrawal method, or other untested techniques that involved the use of sponges, condoms, cervical caps, and douches. All these methods, though, were not very successful. The majority of sponges and creams even brought serious health-related problems for their users. Abstinence did not work for the most part because it required complete self-denial on the part of the husband. Women, who were well aware of the consequences of not abstaining, were more readily able to deny themselves. However, they were essentially considered as being the property of their husbands, and thus could not insist on taking a stand that would annoy the more powerful party in their family lives (Smith, 41). Withdrawal also did not benefit women as it required a lot of self control from the men. Its success was essentially dependent on the men and not the women- thus it still left the women vulnerable. Even if the method of douching would have been a successful method of pregnancy prevention, most women had no private bathroom in which to apply the douches. The rhythm method, which was hailed by many medical doctors, often failed since medical texts differed in aspects concerning the timing for ovulation. When women became pregnant in spite of using either or a combination of all the above stated methods, they resorted to engaging in dangerous backstreet abortions which introduced serious and life-threatening infections into their bodies. According to Engelman, in the 18th century in America alone, one in five pregnancies was aborted by desperate women (Engelman, 26). For poor women, this method was particularly favored as it cost less than the douches and creams. The imperfect quality of all forms of available birth control in past centuries affected women in serious ways. First, it meant that married women could not plan their lives, as they could never tell when they might fall pregnant. The non-existence of a viable form of birth control also had a serious effect on female sexuality. Women, being saddled with the responsibility for sexual control, lost the desire to glory or express their own sexuality since it always resulted in disastrous consequences. The lack of good birth control methods also resulted in many deaths of women in the course of seventh, ninth, or even eleventh pregnancies or in childbirth. A woman named Margaret Sanger would tackle the issue of birth control in the 1900s in spite of societal disapproval. According to Engelman, Sanger opened a clinic which offered free information on birth control to women (Engelman, 37). From the reaction she got from fellow women, she was obviously doing them a service. According to Engelman, from the first day, women lined up right into the streets outside her clinic (Engelman, 38). Margaret Sanger’s own mother had perished when giving birth to her 18th child at the age of 48 years. Of the 18 pregnancies she endured, seven resulted in miscarriages. The subject of birth control was therefore very significant. Even when she was arrested, she spoke to the female inmates in the prison about birth control. In spite of the obvious benefits to the lives of women, the American government would only allow for the distribution of ‘the birth control Pill’, which was first created in 1960, to married women in 1965. CONCLUSION For an invention to be considered to be extremely significant to the human population, it has to have a seriously advantageous effect on a large percentage of them. The birth control pill completely changed the lives of women. It allowed them the opportunity to function as ordinary human beings and enjoy privileges that the male race had been party to since the beginning of time. Just comparing the difference in attitudes towards life in women in developing nations who bear the weight of repressive cultures which allow uneducated husbands to determine the number of children they bear and women from developed as well as developing nations in which women are in charge of the number of children they bear and when they do, shows how the issue of constant childbirth can affect a woman’s psyche. The birth control pill is essentially the ‘great equalize’ as it gives women the right to actually enjoy their lives. Works Cited Engelman, Peter. A History of the Birth Control Movement in America (Healing Society: Disease, Medicine, and History). New York: Praeger, 2011. Smith, Merril. Women's Roles in Seventeenth-Century America. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group Incorporated, 2008. Read More