Something has perplexed me for the longest time now. What did prostitutes do before reliable birth control? Take as a focal point the 18th Century. I recall hearing stories of Ben Franklin arranging orgies for the Hellfire Club in the 18th Century. This leads me to believe that prostitution was quite common at that time. Yet for women to be having such indiscriminant sex, they must have been having babies left and right too. How did they deal with this issue? And was there indeed any alternative to having babies left and right as a prostitute in the 18th Century?
The first condoms, made of animal intestine, were developed by the mid-1600s, though they may have been used mainly for disease prevention. While not as effective, women may also have used other barrier methods or perhaps douching. But unwanted pregnancy was certainly an occupational hazard of prostitution.
There are plenty of herbal and chemical contraceptives, some more effective than others, and nothing I’d want to rely on, thanks! Some of them, like wild yam, are hormonal in nature, others would simply irritate the uterine lining like an IUD and make implantation unlikely, and still others simply make the woman sick enough to hopefully kill the baby and not her.
There were, indeed, a lot of abortions - Romans used turtle shells to scrape the uterus in a D&C-like procedure. Sea shells and bones were used, as well.
Wealthy prostitutes might simply have the baby and send it off somewhere to be fostered so she could get back to work. A very lucky woman might even be set up for life if she were to bear the child of an important man - one of Henry VIII’s sons was born to a woman more-or-less a prostitute, and she got a house and pension for it.
I’m sure, knowing the vagaries of human sexuality, that one could even specialize for a while, as there are plenty of men who think that sex with a pregnant woman is the bee’s knees. But that is speculation, I don’t know that for sure.
Another thing I don’t know about, but wonder, is how many of them followed some sort of fertility awareness method. I wouldn’t expect many of them to be taking their daily basal temps, but paying a bit of attention to your cervical fluid and cervix position makes the monthly cycle pretty obvious. I wouldn’t be surprised if prostitutes recommended to one another to avoid taking clients when their “emissions” were clear and stretchy, indicating peak fertility. But again, speculation on my part.
Condoms have existed for centuries. They are believed to have been in use in ancient Egypt.
And then there is the rhythm method – not really considered “reliable,” but it doesn’t mean prostitutes couldn’t have used it. I’m sure many women were aware of their own cycles and worked only three weeks out of the month (or some such schedule).
I remember reading about excavators in the U.S discovering a cache of infant corpses just outside a 19th century house of prostitution. It seems they had been thrown away. I was trying to Google it to offer a cite, and instead of turning up a reference I found an article from 2006 about women in Zimbabwe currently doing the same thing. Here’s a link if you really want it.. I’ve lost interest in searching.
When Scarlett gets pregnant by Rhett, a former madame of a brothel offers her an abortion. Rhett won’t let her have one because he saw a prostitute die from one.
Not just a cliche – foundlings were often left on the doorsteps of churches (some even had a special door where the woman could leave the child inside and ring a bell, and be able to leave before anyone arrived.
It wasn’t just from prostitutes: any poor woman who didn’t want a child was encouraged to leave them at a church. The child would be raised by the nuns.
On the subject of douching as a method of contraception, here’s a Snopes article on the use of Coca Cola douches for that purpose. I recall scenes from a few films in which prostitutes use this method.
Many of the items sold as “disinfectants” and “germ killers” were in fact code for “sperm killers”, including Lysol. “Medical Experts” from “Europe” (because contraception was illegal here, so no US doctor would recommend it - and in fact, so European doctor did, either, it was all made up.) were quoted extensively in ads for Lysol, advertised for douching before and after sex. Link to an interesting article on historic contraception.
Lysol might just have been harsh enough to be somewhat effective, unlike Coca-Cola.
Umm, dudes? What gives you the idea that hookers do a lot of regular vaginal intercourse? It’s mostly blowjobs, and for extra- greek. If one did want vaginal sex, you wore a condom. Still today, you still wear a condom if either you or the hooker have half a brain.
I’m not totally sure about that. The people I know who have partaken of prostitutes have generally had vaginal sex (with condom). In Hungary, where most of my knowledge on these topics comes from, the ads for call girls had to specifically mention “french sex” to guarantee oral sex–otherwise, vaginal intercourse was assumed. I’m not sure how call girls and street walkers work here, but I wouldn’t assume it’s mostly blowjobs and butt sex–it might be, but it’s certainly not a universal standard.
