[This might be better in GQ. Mods please move as required]
There are a lot of childless couples around. Many times I’ve seen posts saying that a Doper and their partner have decided to remain childless. And this is widespread across the modernised world.
But is this a purely modern thing, enabled by modern medical techniques and the prosperity of society? Are there other eras of history where this happenned? I’m aware of the Shakers, but they were very localised.
I’m not sure what you’re asking. “Modern techniques”? Contraception, abortion and infanticide (not to mention abandonment and “fostering”) are old, old technologies.
Modern sensibilities might have more to do with it, but I don’t really know the answer to your question. I just know that the technology has been there for tens of thousands of years.
The Roman Empire made such use of natural birth control herbs to such an extent, that the plants were harvested to extinction.
The question is, did they use them to space out their children, to prevent having children with certain partners (like not-their-husbands) or to prevent having children altogether? If the last, was is done with the input and consent of the husband, or a wife’s own little secret?
Are you asking if the choice to be deliberately childless is modern?
Obviously, before now (even though childlessness by choice is still uncommon and looked down upon by many) all men and women wanted nothing more than to have children. They had no personal dislikes of their own and no choice in the courses of their own lives. :rolleyes:
I think it might have more to do with urban/rural than with modern/ancient. But civilization used to be much more rural, and so it appears that childlessness is modern. Parents who work farms, for example, need kids to help out. Technology helps a lot today, but used to be, a rural family needed lots of people just to get through the day. In cities, there were plebes and slaves to do those things.
Deliberate childlessness in married couples is a modern construct. If you married, you expected children, if nothing more than to help around the house/farm. If you were poor, you needed the extra hands; if you were rich, you wanted to continue your line.
Sure, there were methods of contraception and abortion, but nothing was particularly effective until condoms were invented, and not good enough to count on until they invented the Pill. And before the Pill, contraceptives were mostly used by unmarried couples.
Remember, also, it was illegal to give information about contraceptives in the US until the early 20th century, and remained illegal in some areas into the 50s. The average middle-class couple would not have access to the information and materials needed to remain childless.
There were childless married couples, but not only were they generally not by choice, but they were considered lacking by the community at large.
The Shakers were celebate. While that ensured childlessness, most married couples didn’t take that route.
It’s my opinion that women/couples are more honest about not wanting children than they were in the past. I know that even in my mother’s generation a woman was seen as abnormal if she admitted she didn’t want kids. When I approached my doctor at age 19 (1979) about having my tubes tied, I was told I would grow out of it and want children. I still don’t want (and don’t have) children.
One method of avoiding offspring in many parts of the world was to become a nun; more than a few women joined nunneries in order to avoid the risks and dangers of childbirth. Don’t know how much that applied to men.
RealityChuck, I agree that most of your points are common knowledge in books. But is there solid evidence backing them up?