Why did parents have more children in the olden days?
How far back do you mean? There are a multitude of reasons. It could be that sex was thought to be intended solely for breeding; this was most common in highly religious areas. They didn’t have the same contraception as we do today, and it wouldn’t have been as accessible back then, in any case. Health was a huge thing. Because medical technology wasn’t all that great, and there weren’t vaccinations and/or cures for all the things we have them for today, many babies and children died for diseases that are now easily preventable (and thus rare) and/or treatable. Another thing was work. More children meant more people to work and bring in money; in rural areas, it meant more people to tend to the farm. Tradition is something else to consider. If families traditionally had large families, that pattern would tend to continue. Women’s equality (or lack thereof) was another contributing factor to large families. Women did not have the same opportunities women have today. Raising children and
The birth control pill is a recent invention. In the olden days if people didn’t want children they abstained from sex when the chances of pregnancy were greater. Most families made their own clothes and farmed their own food. People had more children because it helped insure survival. The life expectancy was less in the olden days.
There were several reasons. First of all, birth control was pretty much unknown. Condoms were very expensive, not very reliable, and hard to get. They were not available over the counter, you had to know somebody to buy them. Into the 20th century, condoms and other birth control methods were ONLY sold to married people. Some pharmacists would sell condoms to unmarried men…but only MEN, over 18 or 21, and again, only to the men that they personally knew. Condoms, despite their drawbacks, were pretty much the only birth control method available, other than withdrawal and the rhythm method. Many other barrier types of contraception were tried, with varying results. Diaphragms became common in the mid 20th century, I believe. Again, these were prescribed only to married women, as a rule. There was a law called the Comstock Act, which led to various laws called Comstock Laws. These laws prohibited the distribution of “obscene” information. At the time, birth control and abortion informat
