As in ancient times, pregnancy was checked. Folk remedies for determining pregnancy in the early stages. Folk methods for determining pregnancy

20.11.2020

website- Today, any woman can easily find out about her pregnancy. These are various tests, analyzes and simply modern knowledge of physiology. But how did women cope with this at different stages of history? I suggest you familiarize yourself with interesting facts of the past.

So Ancient Babylon

It was in ancient Babylon that one of the first pregnancy tests was invented. To determine pregnancy, a swab was made from sheep's wool, which was soaked in juice from a special collection of herbs. The tampon was inserted into the vagina and left for several days. After extraction, the swab was placed in a solution of mineral salts (alum). The presence or absence of pregnancy was indicated by a change in the color of the tampon: red - pregnant, green - not.

Ancient Egypt

In the ancient Egyptian papyri that have survived to this day, there is information about two interesting ways determination of pregnancy and the sex of the unborn child. According to the conditions of the first method, a woman should urinate on two bags of grain: one with wheat, the other with barley. If barley sprouts, a boy will be born. If wheat is a girl. If not a single bag sprouts, then the woman is not pregnant. Experiments conducted in the laboratory confirmed that in 70% of cases with confirmed pregnancy, the grain really germinates (this is due to the presence of a special hormone in the urine of pregnant women), but not when using the urine of a non-pregnant woman or man. The second method involved drinking milk from a nursing mother who had given birth to a boy. If, after such a drink, a woman vomited, this indicated pregnancy.

Jewish women took off their shoes and walked barefoot through the tall grass. If a deep trace remained, then this meant that the woman was pregnant.

Hippocrates suggested that if a woman drinks water with honey at night and after a while feels abdominal cramps, then there is a possibility that she is pregnant. But it was he who in the 5th century BC for the first time clearly announced the cessation of menstruation as a sign of pregnancy.

midwives from Ancient Greece based on considerable knowledge. So, to determine pregnancy, they analyzed objective signs: the absence of menstruation, appetite, the presence of nausea, the appearance of yellow spots on the face, and so on. At the same time, they also used ridiculous means: a red stone was rubbed in front of the woman’s eyes, and if the dust from the stone got into the woman’s eyes, then the woman was considered pregnant.

By the beginning of our era, Roman and Greek doctors reliably attributed breast and stomach enlargement, nausea to “suspicious” signs. And the movement of the fetus in the stomach!

AT Ancient China experienced acupuncturists determined pregnancy and the sex of the unborn child by the nature of the woman's pulse.

In Russia, during the wedding, the bride was put on a woolen thread or short beads around her neck. When the thread became small, it was removed, and the young woman was declared pregnant. By the way, today doctors do not consider this rite unreasonable. During pregnancy, the thyroid gland slightly increases.

Both here and in Germany there was a sign: unblown flowers should be watered with morning urine. Polila - sit and watch. If after 3 days they bloom in lush color - you are pregnant, they will not bloom - alas!

In the Middle Ages, women mixed morning urine in half with wine, left for a while, watching the result. If a woman is not pregnant, the liquid will become cloudy and curdle. And if it remains transparent, bright, then a happy event of the birth of a child should be expected.

All modern methods of diagnosing pregnancy are based on the detection of the pregnancy hormone, hCG, in the blood or urine of a woman.

A major advance in the development of pregnancy tests came in 1928, when two German gynecologists, Selmar Aschheim and Bernhard Sondek, began experimenting with a hormone called chorionic gonadotropin human (hCG). Zondek and Ashheim actively developed the rabbit test. The test consisted of injecting female urine into a female rabbit. After a couple of days, the rabbit was examined. If the rabbit's ovaries reacted to the woman's urine, then hCG was present and the woman was pregnant. The test was a successful innovation and it accurately detected pregnancy. The rabbit test was widely used until 1950. All rabbits used in the program were surgically examined and then killed. It was impossible to perform the procedure without killing the rabbit, but this was not considered a problem or a great expense. Today, modern science is far from using live animals in pregnancy tests, but the rabbit test is still considered an important step in the development of medicine.

Kupperman's 1943 method based on rat antibodies could already produce a fairly accurate "prediction" within 2 hours.

The first in the history of medicine home test humanity acquired in 1971. The result was obtained after the same 2 hours.

In 1988, the so-called test strips appeared. The lines appeared on paper after 5-15 minutes, but in a blurry form: their number was guessed only approximately.

The tablet tests of the early 90s were much more accurate than the strips, but not as easy to handle. Urine was collected in a pipette, and then applied to a special tablet with a reagent. The result is in 3-5 minutes.

In 1996, the paper was replaced with latex - and the test results immediately became less vague. The development time was reduced to one minute. The latest generation test systems are very convenient and easy to use: just place them under the urine stream for 5 seconds to get the result.

At the beginning of the 21st century, tests became electronic. The method of application and the principle of action is the same as that of the others. Only instead of bright or pale stripes, which girls tend to interpret differently, they highlight an unambiguous symbol: + or -.

From ancient history. Ancient Egypt

Definition of pregnancy in women Ancient Egypt, which have survived to our time, were able to reach us. They wrote the following, that in order to determine the pregnancy of a woman and the sex of the unborn baby, surprisingly, grain was used instead of the usual pregnancy test. For this, the woman, as when using a pregnancy test, had to urinate on two types of grain that were in the bags. One bag contained barley, the other wheat. After the woman urinated, they waited a certain period of time for which grain to sprout. If barley sprouted, then the woman was expecting a boy, and if wheat sprouted, then it was necessary to wait for the birth of a girl. In a case where neither wheat nor barley germinated, it was said that the woman was not pregnant. Studies conducted in our time have shown that 70% of the women studied confirmed pregnancy after the urine affected the grain. The grain began to grow. The thing is that a specific hormone was secreted in a pregnant woman, which was contained in the urine. When the experiment was repeated on a non-pregnant woman and on a man, the grain did not grow.

Ancient Egypt used to be famous for another method of determining pregnancy. To do this, the woman had to drink the milk of the mother who fed the child and gave birth to a boy. If after that the woman felt sick and began to vomit, this was proof that she was pregnant. How Jewish Pregnancy Was Determined Previously, in this case, women had to walk barefoot on the grass. If they left a deep mark in the grass, it meant that the woman was pregnant.

How pregnancy was determined in ancient Greece

The doctor Hippocrates, well-known in ancient Greece, argued that in order to determine pregnancy, a woman needs to drink water with honey at night. If she gets abdominal cramps after a while, it's sure sign that she is expecting a baby. But even if it was considered absurd, it was this doctor who proved the connection between pregnancy and the cessation of menstruation in a woman. Also in Ancient Greece, midwives could draw their conclusions about pregnancy based on indicators of such signs: lack of appetite, nausea, vomiting, cessation of menstruation, and others. But along with these methods, there were also very absurd ones. So, to determine pregnancy, a special red stone was spread in front of the woman’s face, it was believed that if the dust from this stone got into the eyes of a woman, then she was pregnant.

Ancient China and its method of determining pregnancy

Ancient China was famous for this method of determination. They determined the conception and sex of the child by the woman's pulse.

How was the definition of pregnancy in Russia?

During the wedding ceremony, the girls tied a special woolen thread or short beads around their necks. If the thread tightened and became tight, it was removed and they said that the girl was expecting a baby. Modern scientists explain this fact by the fact that the thyroid gland can increase in a pregnant woman.

Definition of pregnancy in Germany

Residents of Germany used a different method. The woman needed to urinate on a blossoming flower. After three days, the result was determined: if the flower bloomed, then the woman was expecting a baby, and if it did not bloom, then she was not pregnant.

How pregnancy was previously determined - the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, women, when they wanted to determine pregnancy, mixed wine with morning urine in equal proportions. If a woman was expecting a baby, then the liquid should have remained light and transparent, otherwise it would become cloudy and coagulate.

Every woman who wants to have a child dreams of finding out about her pregnancy as early as possible - well, preferably from the first day of conception. Ignorance itself is terribly tormenting. Thankfully now you can different ways These are both tests and analyses. But after all, our great-great-grandmothers were deprived of these benefits of civilization, and women could learn about the “interesting situation” only with the help of various folk methods. And, by the way, it was believed that grandmother's methods for determining pregnancy are 100% correct. Unfortunately, not all of them have survived to our time, however, something still survived.

List of best practices

How did our grandmothers, for example, determine the onset of pregnancy at a time closer to us? Well, of course, except for the lack of critical days, it turns out that they had a lot of methods. Basically, many of them are associated with ... urine, however, like modern test strips:

Collect your urine in a jar and drop iodine there - a drop is enough. It is believed that if conception has occurred, then the drop will not spread over the entire surface, and if it does spread, then there is no pregnancy.
Dip a piece of paper in urine and drop iodine on it. If the color turns purple, it means that soon there will be a replenishment in the family, if blue - alas.
A very common method and the most easy way- determination of pregnancy by the color of urine. It is believed that on early dates it is colored dark yellow.
In the morning, collect your urine and water the growing flower. Pregnancy hormones have a beneficial effect on the plant, so if it began to grow better, then conception has come.
Pour your urine into a metal bowl and put on fire, after boiling - pour into glass jar. If pregnancy has occurred, then flakes will float in the jar, which will precipitate.

At the same time, grandmothers claim that these methods show a positive result even when it occurs (currently, there are pregnancy tests that detect this pathology). In addition to methods related to urine, there were others, and very funny ones. Here are the most common ones:

Plant two bulbs in two glasses of water, while assigning the obligation to show a positive result on one bulb, and a negative one on the second. Then it remains to wait until the onion sprouts up to four centimeters. Which bulb will germinate faster, then this is the result.
Lie on your back, relax. Put your hand below the navel and press it a little to the stomach - the presence of a pulsation probably indicates the onset of pregnancy.
If a woman dreams of a fish: she catches it, eats it, cooks it, buys it, or simply sees it, she is pregnant. This is the most reliable way who is still trusted today.
Increased sense of smell.
Breast enlargement and soreness.
Nausea in the morning or during the day when the woman is hungry.
Pulling sensations in the lower abdomen, fullness and tingling.
Change in taste preferences. The woman begins to eat what she could not even look at before.
Increased emotionality, frequent tears and mood swings.

How was pregnancy determined?

In ancient times, women practically did not differ from the modern representatives of the fair sex. Of course, they also loved, suffered and hoped, as soon as possible, to reproduce an heir into the world. At the same time, the place of birth did not play any role - each nation had its own methods for determining pregnancy.

Jewish women preferred to walk on tall grass - if after that a deep trace remained, then this certainly indicated the onset of pregnancy.
In ancient Egypt, a woman was given a drink - it was prepared from bududu-ka grass, infused with the milk of a woman who was breastfeeding her son. If the subject felt sick and vomited, this meant that conception had occurred.
In ancient Greece, a woman drank a drink made from wine and honey before going to bed, if at night her stomach began to hurt in the navel area, then this guaranteed the onset of pregnancy. For these purposes, honey with anise was also used.
Another typically Greek way: in front of the eyes of a woman who suspects herself of being pregnant, a red stone must be rubbed. In the event that dust gets into your eyes - be pregnant, and if not, then it's not time yet.
Italian women were supposed to make a fire and warm themselves around it, adding myrrh and incense there. If in the morning the smell of incense and myrrh was felt from a woman, this indicated that she would soon become a mother. Another way that Italian women could determine the onset of pregnancy: mix morning urine with wine in a 1: 1 ratio. If the resulting liquid has become transparent, then the baby will be born soon.
But Hippocrates defined future mother by ... eyes. According to his theory, the iris of a pregnant woman darkens.

Very often, women use folk remedies not only to determine pregnancy, but also for its speedy onset.

Today it is very easy to determine whether a woman is pregnant or not. There are many different tests and blood tests that you can take and get an answer to your question. How was pregnancy determined before, when there were no tests, there was no ultrasound, it was even simply impossible to take a blood test to find out about replenishment in the family? At a time when knowledge of medicine was at a very primitive level, a woman could find out that she was pregnant thanks to very strange methods, which you will learn about in this article.

How was pregnancy detected in ancient Greece?

The doctor Hippocrates, well-known in ancient Greece, argued that in order to determine pregnancy, a woman needs to drink water with honey at night. If she starts having abdominal cramps after a while, this is a sure sign that she is expecting a baby. But even if it was considered absurd, it was this doctor who proved the connection between pregnancy and the cessation of menstruation in a woman.

Also in Ancient Greece, midwives could draw their conclusions about pregnancy based on indicators of such signs: lack of appetite, nausea, vomiting, cessation of menstruation, and others. But along with these methods, there were also very absurd ones. So, to determine pregnancy, a special red stone was spread in front of the woman’s face, it was believed that if the dust from this stone got into the eyes of a woman, then she was pregnant.

How could pregnancy be determined in ancient Egypt?

The definition of pregnancy in women in ancient Egypt, which have survived to our time, could reach us.

Surprisingly, grain was used instead of the usual pregnancy test to determine pregnancy and the sex of the unborn baby. To do this, the woman, as when using a pregnancy test, had to urinate on two types of grain that were in bags. One bag contained barley, the other wheat. After the woman urinated, they waited a certain period of time for which grain to sprout. If barley sprouted, then the woman was expecting a boy, and if wheat sprouted, then it was necessary to wait for the birth of a girl.

In a case where neither wheat nor barley germinated, it was said that the woman was not pregnant. Studies conducted in our time have shown that 70% of the women studied confirmed pregnancy after the urine affected the grain. The grain began to grow. The thing is that a specific hormone was secreted in a pregnant woman, which was contained in the urine. When the experiment was repeated on a non-pregnant woman and on a man, the grain did not grow.

How was pregnancy detected in the Middle Ages?

Method for determining pregnancy in ancient China

Ancient China was famous for this method of determination: the woman's pulse determined the conception and sex of the child.

How was the definition of pregnancy in Russia?

Definition of pregnancy in Germany

Residents of Germany used a different method to determine whether a woman is pregnant or not. The woman needed to urinate on a blossoming flower. After three days, the result was determined: if the flower bloomed, then she was expecting a baby, and if it did not bloom, she was not pregnant.

How was it customary to determine the pregnancy of the Jews?

To determine the pregnancy, Jewish women had to walk barefoot on the grass. If they left a deep mark in the grass, it meant that the woman was pregnant.

"Death borders on our birth and our cradle is in the grave."
Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter (1564-1656)

In the 19th century, everyone knew about the high mortality of women in childbirth. And today, any expectant mother is worried in anticipation of childbirth, but in the past the risk of complications was much higher. In the life of a young woman, there has hardly been anything more dangerous than childbirth.

Of course, some of the deaths of women during and after childbirth were the cause of other diseases, which were only aggravated because of this. But not a single, even the strongest and most healthy woman was immune from unexpected death due to the birth of a child. They often died, leaving a newborn and other children with a widowed husband.

Only recently has the Church of England removed the "churching of women who have recently given birth" service, which began with thanksgiving to God for "safe deliverance and preservation from the great dangers of childbirth," from the prayer book of the Church of England.

Pregnancy

In the 19th century, pregnancy suddenly became a topic too sensitive to discuss. Such etiquette led women to regard pregnancy as a disease, and Victorian books on childbearing put pregnancy on a par with " female diseases". The veil of secrecy that surrounded everything related to childbirth increased the fear of an ignorant woman of the 19th century, who first found herself in an "interesting position." Ignorance of the physiology of her own body brought her inconvenience at best, and at worst threatened with danger.

Women of the lower class were, of course, at greater risk of dying in childbirth. Poor and unbalanced nutrition seriously weakened the health of a pregnant woman. On the other hand, rich ladies had another problem, having an abundance of nutritious food, they also consumed a lot of alcohol during pregnancy, which could have a bad effect on the health of their children.

The very time of childbirth was very important for aristocratic families. Victorian era. Many wanted to go to London, before women are forced to retire from society for a few weeks before the birth itself, to spend this time with friends and loved ones. The purpose of this journey, called "going out into the city", was socially motivated: it was necessary to publicize the imminent birth of a new member of high society. The house in which they were going to stay had to be specially prepared to accommodate the pregnant woman and her husband, friends, family, the doctor and his assistants.

Not all women actually made the trip to London or elsewhere, so many rearranged their rooms to prepare for childbirth during the few weeks of seclusion. "Concentration" is a term used to describe the last few weeks of pregnancy, which a woman spent at home in a specially prepared bedroom.

Until the 18th century, when the first maternity hospitals began to appear, almost all people were born within the walls of their homes. A person's life began in the bedroom and most often ended there. It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that childbearing began to gradually move from the private home to public institutions.

During the 19th century, the average woman gave birth to six children, not including miscarriages and stillbirths. Due to the lack of modern medical care, women often suffered from complications due to postpartum ruptures and damage to the genitals. The consequences of this made subsequent births even more painful.

Despite the fact that already in the 17th century men gained access to maternity wards, the midwife profession remained in demand until the end of the 19th century, at least in rural areas. The midwife, as a rule, was the only one who could provide real assistance in childbirth, especially since the services of an obstetrician were often beyond the reach of working-class women. The midwife, on the other hand, could sometimes stay in the house for several days after the birth to look after her mother. Even if the services of a midwife were too expensive for the family, then the pregnant woman had to rely on her relatives and neighbors. They could, for example, call a doctor when it was a matter of life and death.

The position most commonly used during childbirth was the Sims position (in honor of the gynecologist James Marion Sims (1813-1883) / James Marion Sims), when the patient lies on the left side, bending the right leg at the knee and stretching the other. This position made it difficult for the doctor and the woman in labor to see each other, which allowed the mother to save face in an awkward position for Victorian women.

In 1847, the Scottish physician James Simpson / James Simpson first used anesthesia during childbirth. Until then, the only painkiller known to physicians was bloodletting. Up to 50 ounces of blood was let in to ease labor pains...

The use of painkillers has ushered in a new era in obstetric practice. Mothers could now be spared the hellish pain of childbirth. It also led to a medical and moral controversy that lasted for several decades. On the one hand, women were doomed to suffer because of the "curse of Eve" and had to experience pain during childbirth. On the other hand, humanitarian societies have noted moral and physiological reasons for controlling and eliminating the pain of childbirth. Thus, in high society there was an ambivalent attitude towards painkillers for women in labor.

For example, Queen Victoria herself popularized chloroform as an analgesic during childbirth, but she did so in defiance of strong public opinion, convinced that using chloroform meant "succumbing to weakness." Many of her subjects equated the "state of insensibility" brought on by whiskey, brandy, gin, wine, or beer, and that brought about by ether and chloroform, both of which make one dead drunk, which is indecent. Be that as it may, when the wife of the scientist and thinker Charles Darwin began labor pains, he put her to sleep with chloroform.

By the time people began to realize that invisible germs could be carried into a woman's bedroom even if her hands were washed, doctors were still refusing to change their habits. In 1865, the Women's Medical Society asked doctors not to come to the maternity ward directly from the anatomical theater. In a statement, The Lancet called the request completely unfounded: the cause of puerperal sepsis is not an infection at all, but a woman's "state of mind" caused by overexcitation.

As in Tudor times, women in the 19th century were not allowed to get out of bed after childbirth: the book Advice to a Married Woman (1853) recommended that a young mother lie on her back for nine days and only on the tenth day "take a sitting position for half an hour." After two weeks, they were allowed to "change the bedroom to the living room."

Of course, the class differences that existed in society also manifested themselves in relation to women in childbirth. Yes, the author of another book useful tips of the Victorian era stated: "It is absolutely inadmissible that the wife of a workman shirks from work ... There is no need for this. Everyone must bear their own burden." British working-class women and New World settler wives were torn between maternal and marital responsibilities. Doctors discouraged pregnant women from raising their hands above their heads, but in New England it was considered a woman's job to smear clay on the ceiling and walls in a house under construction or in need of repair, and for this you had to stretch your arms up. Even during pregnancy and after childbirth, women from rural communities, willy-nilly, had to do hard physical work.

Sources:
"English house. intimate story" Lucy Worsley
http://www.loyno.edu/~kchopin/new/women/bcabortion.htmlT