Birth Control Methods: History, Types, and Effectiveness

Introduction

There are many reasons that people may choose to prevent or delay pregnancy, from a desire not to have children to having a medical condition that makes pregnancy life-threatening. Choosing an effective method of pregnancy prevention is important to anyone who does not want a pregnancy, but the importance of a method's efficacy may depend on why a person is making that choice. The desire to have sex without experiencing pregnancy is not a new one; various methods to prevent pregnancy have been used throughout human history with varying degrees of success. While some people still use these older methods, there are a number of very effective modern forms of birth control. Some of these pregnancy prevention methods are available over-the-counter or in drugstores, while others require a visit to the doctor and a prescription for either a medication or a device.

With the wide variety of highly effective ways to prevent pregnancy, it is relatively easy for both men and women to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies. Unfortunately, lack of education about birth control — including its proper use — as well as lack of affordable access to the most effective birth control methods can mean that the highest-risk groups for unintended pregnancies are also the least likely to practice appropriate pregnancy prevention.

Why People Choose to Prevent Pregnancy

There are many reasons that people may choose to prevent pregnancy. For most people, pregnancy prevention is not rooted in a desire to never have a pregnancy, but in the desire to control when they conceive and how many children they have. In most parts of the developed world, people use birth control to delay conception after they become sexually active, may use some type of contraceptive to increase the gap between children once they begin their families, and resume using contraceptives when they have completed their families. However, some people use birth control methods because they have no desire to ever have children. Others use birth control because of health issues or medications that would make carrying a child physically dangerous for the mother.

The desire to control when she gets pregnant or how many pregnancies she experiences is not limited to modern women. Throughout history, women and men have employed a variety of different methods to try to prevent pregnancy. Three of these methods are considered "natural" methods of pregnancy prevention: abstinence, extended breastfeeding, and withdrawal. Others included barrier methods and attempts to either prevent ovulation or the implantation of fertilized eggs.

Historical Methods of Birth Control

Abstinence was probably the most common form of pregnancy prevention, and one of the reasons that premarital sex likely developed as a cultural taboo was concern about conceiving and raising a child without a partner. Extended breastfeeding was popular among women who had already conceived because women are less likely to ovulate while breastfeeding, and extended breastfeeding could lengthen the period of time between children. Withdrawal, which involved the man withdrawing before climax, was another historical method and, when used consistently, it enjoyed the highest success rate of any historical form of birth control.

Women employed a variety of cervical caps, which were placed over the cervix as a barrier to prevent sperm from entering the uterus. Women have also used a variety of different substances to either prevent or terminate pregnancies, with varying degrees of success. "Perhaps one of the most famous ancient forms of birth control was the silphium plant, native to North Africa. This plant was used as a contraceptive and was incredibly popular in ancient Greece and Rome" (Pandia Health, Inc., 2020).

The use of condoms can be traced all the way back to King Minos, and condoms were originally created from animal skins or bladders. Their efficacy in preventing pregnancy increased dramatically with the vulcanization of rubber and the invention of rubber condoms in the mid-1850s (Khan et al., 2013).

Conclusion

Although the unintended pregnancy rate in much of the developed world is still higher than it needs to be, there are a number of highly effective ways to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Some can be accessed through local drugstores or online retailers, while others require a doctor's care and a prescription. Modern methods offer varying rates of success but are generally more effective than all-natural pregnancy prevention methods or the historical methods of birth control that people once used. This makes them an effective means to help people delay or prevent pregnancy, regardless of their motivation for doing so.