The Complications of Family Planning in Victorian Households

It may seem strange to talk about reproductive issues that affected the lives of Victorian women. Many of us associate sexual repression; with the sexual attitudes of a women in the Victorian era. Yet, children were born at home. Couples tried to practice birth control. Unwanted pregnancies many times ended in abortion or ended in complete social disgrace for an unwed mother and her bastard child. Both women and men knew little about their reproductive systems before entering marriage. A significant number of poor women (up to 2%) made their living engaging in prostitution for periods up to five years with very little understanding of the transmission of sexually transmitted disease.

The greatest reproductive concern for the younger Victorian women was the lack of reliable birth control. The physical burden of child rearing and household management lead most women of the period to seek out ways to control their fertility. This may have been to limit the number of children they conceived over all or more commonly to space out the pregnancies so there would be a reasonable amount of time between child births.

Many families for the first time considered limiting the number of children they had because of significant economic changes.

Land was not as less plentiful and more people found themselves living in urban environments where large families were not an economic asset. The birth rate in America dropped steadily from 1800 onward. In colonial times Americans had approximately seven children per household. The birth rate dropped to less than four children per household by 1900.

This figure did not include African Americans who averaged 5 children per household. It also did not reflect that white rural families were still having very large families; and growing middle class urbanites were generally trying to have no more than two children. High infant mortality rates among urban immigrants probably made contraception a low priority. You simply had to have a large number of children to have as two or three to live to adulthood.

The introduction of birth control did help some Victorian couples limit the number of children they conceived. Most couples were not particularly good at practicing abstinence. Popular birth control methods were withdrawal, the rhythm method, douching, and condoms.

Most men refused to wear condoms. Douching was only effective for middle class women who had access to bathrooms. The rhythm method failed because most women had no reliable way to know when they were ovulating. Many doctors felt that it was safe for couples to have sex mid way between a women's menstrual cycle. This method leads to many unwanted pregnancies. It is estimated that one in five unwanted pregnancies ended in abortion. Poor women were more likely to seek abortions than middle class women.

In the late Victorian Era, the government faced with a declining birth rate among educated whites began to see birth control devices and abortions as contributing to, "race suicide" among whites. Middle class doctors and political figures, including Theodore Roosevelt 'felt it was immoral of middle class educated protestant women to restrict child bearing.

By the early 1900's groups like the Society for The Suppression of Vice lead by Anthony Comstock helped campaign for federal and state laws banning birth control and abortion. Abortion was usually still legal to save the lives of the mother in most states. Congress also passed laws limiting the "dissemination "of birth control information through the mail.

Despite the "Comstock " laws the daughters of Victorian women fought and won suffrage ; and middle class women continued to make very significant economic and educational gains in the early twentieth century.

http://somethingvictorianblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/victorian-birth-control.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Restell

http://law.jrank.org/pages/5508/Comstock-Law-1873.html

http://home.pacbell.net/tonyprey/burning/vicera.htm