Bizarre Medieval Methods for Preventing Pregnancy

Historical Context of Reproductive Health

• 💡 The debate over reproductive rights has a long history, with views on the topic varying significantly even in the Middle Ages.
• ⚠️ Giving birth was far riskier in the past due to limited medical knowledge and fewer options for handling complications.

Hildigard von Bingen: A Medieval Medical Expert

• ⛪ Hildigard von Bingen, a nun, was a prominent unconventional medical provider known for her work on pregnancy termination and birth control.
• 🌿 She meticulously cataloged the medicinal uses of over 175 plants, with a focus on their effects on the reproductive system.
• ⚠️ While the church generally disapproved of abortion, Hildigard often framed her advice as warnings, such as noting that European wild ginger could cause a miscarriage.
• 🧪 She also developed tonics to potentially prevent pregnancy by retaining the menses, often using herbal mixtures like tanzy, mullen, and feverfew.

Diverse Contraceptive Practices Across Cultures

• 🛡️ In 10th-century Persia, methods to block the cervix included using objects like cabbage, hardened pitch tar, or elephant dung, as well as pessaries made from rock salt.
• 💃 Persian women were also advised to jump backwards multiple times after intercourse, believing it would dislodge semen.
• 💖 In medieval India, texts described potions made from powdered palm leaf and red chalk, and pessaries made from ghee (clarified butter).
• 🧘 Chinese texts from as early as the 7th century B.C.E. focused on male control, promoting 'kitis reservatus' (controlled ejaculation), viewed as an extension of meditative techniques.
• 💉 In China's Tang Dynasty, physicians documented the use of golden contraceptive prescriptions made from oil and quicksilver, reportedly inducing sterility.

Indigenous and Folk Remedies

• 🌿 Native American peoples used plants like bitter cherry, corn lily, and starflowered lily of the valley for contraception.
• 🌶️ In Mexico, cinnamon was known to be harmful to pregnant women if consumed in large amounts.
• 🍺 Some concoctions involved boiling plants like matter in beer, while in France, male fern gained the name 'prostitute root' for its use in abortion.
• 🤢 German folk medicine included remedies like camel saliva or crushed ants, and dissolving blacktailed deer hair in bear tallow.

Risks and Church Influence

• ⚠️ Inserting herbs like lily root was a method to physically block or destroy semen, with mixed success.
• 🔪 Methods for terminating pregnancy could be dangerous, including the use of sharp objects, leading to organ damage, infection, or death.
• ⚖️ The Roman Catholic Church viewed abortion as a crime, and its stance became stricter after 1484, associating such practices with witchcraft.
• 🤫 Women often chose techniques that left minimal traces, leading to a prevalence of herbal tonics.
• 👩‍⚕️ So-called 'witches' were often medicine women using traditional herbal remedies, sometimes to terminate pregnancies, and managed to keep their practices hidden.