How did women avoid pregnancy before the pill?

[ericcartman]

How come most families weren't the size of football teams back then? I mean bar any fertility issues or couples stopping having sex what else was there? I know condoms and abortions have been around for ages in one form or another but I doubt either was that common till the 20th century, especially when talking about married couples.

They didn't have sex.

Withdrawal. Condoms have been around for years.

I've wiki'd it, wish i hadn't

They did have families the size of football teams! My grandparents had 7,8 and 11 siblings. My grandad only had one sibling, but his dad died when he was a young child.
Nutrition wasn’t as good, so fertility would have been lower. Healthcare was less good, so far more children died in their first five years. Much as happens in large swathes of the third world still .

Spermicidal pessaries (ones made from cocoa butter were popular)
Douche
Sponge
Paraphernalia that worked like diaphragm.

They didn't have sex? People used to marry in their early 20's , so were they done with sex by their late 20's?

pulling out ?

Often they didn't. The pill was revolutionary for women.

Many families were very large, and in those that weren’t there had often been a lot of miscarriages or infants who died. More educated or canny women used withdrawal or various barriers methods of contraception, or stopped having sex.

I know condoms and abortions have been around for ages in one form or another but I doubt either was that common till the 20th century

Both have been used for a long time. Much further back than the 20th century.

How come most families weren't the size of football teams back then?

High infant mortality

Anal

High infant mortality. They didn't necessarily avoid pregnancy, but many, many babies barely survived birth, let alone to age 5.

Also breastfeeding. Lasted longer than 6 months and delayed return of periods.

Breastfeeding. Shorter life span. Infant mortality. Infanticide was extremely common especially for girls or disabled children. Large families were common but children didn’t have good early life expectancy. Depends how far back you go with this question.

Much as happens in large swathes of the third world still

The third world has huge fertility rates, especially sub-saharan african countries. Africa is expected to go from around 1 billion to 3 billion in around 50 years, while the most of the world is either dropping or staying at the same level.

Rhythm method, pulling out, condoms, barriers, breast feeding, and more were given up as foundlings or adopted out.
Families were a lot bigger (fil is one of 9, mil is one of 13, smil is one of 15) and infant mortality rates were much higher.

People were in poorer health generally, plenty of sub clinical infections may have meant more miscarriages - certainly sexually transmitted diseases like syphyllis meant many women were infertile.

Also the first year of life had a far lower survival rate, so a live birth didnt necessarily lead to a 5 year old child. Scarlett fever, measels, diphtheria all took lives.

We are living in a golden age of maternal and child health.

Abstinence
Religion
Diaphragm/cap
Condoms
Anal sex
Social pressure - there was a certain amount of pressure on men to make sure that women had a gap between pregnancies; likewise pressure on women to turn a blind eye to allegedly discreet infidelity

infertility from multiple births and poor aftercare

I’ve used natural family planning for the past 8 years and have only got pregnant the two times that ive had sex the days around my ovulation.

My late mother was born a century ago. She was one of eight children, but four died in infancy, of diphtheria and pneumonia. There was no NHS and no antibiotics, the family didn’t even have a toilet. They used a bucket in a midden behind the house, and the bucket was emptied onto an open horse drawn cart once a week and some disinfectant powder thrown in the midden. They shared one cold water tap with another large family.
I think youngsters today perhaps don’t realise that much of Britain contained third world slums just two generations ago, with comparable infant mortality rates.

Oh and maternal deaths. Lots of those.

Expensive and elite health care, poor nutrition and accommodation, leading to higher rates of infertility, miscarriage and Infant mortality than in modern times.

They did have football team sized families- on my mums side my Grandad was one of 15 and grandma was one of 11.