Over the past 70 years, the global birth rate has dropped from roughly five children per woman in 1950 to 2.2, and 2.1 is considered the replacement level for a continuing population. In countries such as Serbia, the birth rate was 1.1 in 2023 and continued to drop in 2024. Meanwhile, in African nations such as Chad, the average woman has seven children.

There are a number of rich and influential celebrities, such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, who have sounded the alarm about this situation. There are whole movements, such as Quiverfull and the Natal Conference, devoted to reversing this trend and jacking birth rates back up. Evidence indicates that the effort will be, pardon the expression, fruitless. As many of the entries on this list will indicate, it’s a movement that is ill-served by its adherents.

Related: 10 Victims Whose Parents Never Gave Up

10 Abortion Bans Aren’t Making Up the Difference

It’s unquestionably true that since the Dobbs ruling, which took away federal protections for abortion rights in more conservative states, birth rates in those states have risen. Texas, for instance, saw a 16,000 increase from 2021 to 2022, of which about 84% were Latino/Hispanic teens. That certainly sounds like it will solve the problem, regardless of how someone feels about bodily autonomy or quality of life for parents.

As of 2024, though, it hasn’t. Even in South Dakota, the state with the highest percentage increase, in 2022, it was still 2.0, which was just shy of the replacement level. Part of this can be accounted for in the fact that even with abortion bans in place, many demographics are still seeing net birth rate drops.

Considering Texas again, the same year that Hispanic teen births went up 13,000 and 5% overall, white female births went down 0.2%, and black births 0.6%. Indeed, white teen pregnancies dropped 5%. The birth rate would have sunk much lower below replacement level without Roe V Wade being overturned (the California birth rate went down 20,000 in California in 2022, for example), but so far, the targets have not been reached.^[1]

9 Prohibitively Expensive or Dangerous Birth Process

The reader probably doesn’t need to be told how unaffordable many basic healthcare costs are getting in a number of countries. In light of the nature of the widespread birth crisis, certain allowances should be made to incentivize births. Instead, birth costs have risen so that, on average, an uninsured patient will be charged $18,865 as of January 2024.

For those who have insurance, the average cost is about $2,655. That’s if the birth is an uncomplicated vaginal procedure. If a caesarian section is required (and it is in about 30% of cases), then the price goes up to $25,820 for the uninsured and $3,200(9b) with insurance. This is in a context where, in the United States of America, 63% of employees report that they cannot afford a $500 emergency.

Traditionalists might recommend opting for a home delivery to cut down on the expenses, which is valid in a strictly financial sense. If an expecting parent hires a midwife, the services are likely to be covered by many insurance providers. However, these services are still expensive themselves: A $6,000 bill for the uninsured is typical. The financially downtrodden should know that only 21 states cover home deliveries through Medicaid.

All of this is disregarding the single greatest problem with home delivery: It is twice as likely to result in the death of the newborn. So it is little wonder that 37% of others attempting home delivery end up going to a hospital, adding thousands to their medical bill. Judging single women or couples for hesitating to go forward with such a dangerous, expensive procedure is simply absurd.^[2]

8 Birth Defect Rates Rising

There are regions experiencing as high as 50% increases in rates of birth defects, such as the United Kingdom from the nineties to the aughts. These defects include cleft lip, born with intestines outside the body, fatal heart flaws, etc. At present, one in sixteen children can be expected to be born with a significant birth abnormality. In America, the rate rose between 2005 and 2022 at roughly 10.7% per year, going from about 1% of births to 2.9%. This is a disconcerting trend for a nation where every state is already below replacement level.

This is absolutely not to say that persons born with severe birth defects do not deserve to live. However, they remain more likely to die in infancy. The extra surgeries often mean more and much greater expenses for an already very costly procedure, even for those very well-insured. Those are only the short-term problems.^[3]

7 Pollution Lowering Fertility

Multiple studies are finding that women who live in more heavily polluted areas are conceiving significantly less often, despite their best efforts. A survey of 18,000 couples in China found that those who lived in dense urban areas were 20% less capable of conceiving after one year of trying.

In America, a 2019 study of 632 women by the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Clinic found that women in environments with high concentrations of fine particulate matter in the air, which is typical in urban areas, lost their eggs and were rendered infertile earlier in life. For those who tried IVF instead, a study published in the periodical Human Reproduction in 2024 found that in neighborhoods with high levels of pollution, IVF conception failed 38%(7c) more often.

Men are also deeply susceptible to potency damage from pollution. Hagai Levine from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reported in 2022 that the minimum threshold before low sperm count led to a decrease in fertility was under roughly 40 million per milliliter. Levine went on to report that between 1973 and 2018, global average sperm counts went from 104 million to 49 million per milliliter.

In 2000, the rate began dropping roughly 2.6% annually. A study published in Nature in 2022 found that fully 7% of men have been infertile their whole lives. That puts human sperm counts near a threshold where many communities will start to see a significant drop in fertility.^[4]

6 Miscarriage Rates

Miscarriage is a true tragedy but an extremely common one as well. About 20% of pregnancies end in a miscarriage or a stillbirth (stillbirth meaning self-terminating pregnancy after 20 weeks, miscarriage being those that happen earlier). You’d think medical advances, modern stress relief, etc. prevent that. In recent years, they have not. A 2018 New England Journal of Medicine study found that miscarriage rates were increasing by 1% per year. This rate is not at all consistent for the duration of the pregnancy: Stillbirth rates are about 1 in 160.

Unsurprisingly, miscarriages and stillbirths bring with them great emotional turmoil for large numbers of aspiring parents. A 2015 study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology found that 50% of those who experienced one felt guilt, and a quarter felt shame. That is a great emotional risk that many people will have to run if they decide to try for parenthood.^[5]

5 Antinatalism/Childfree Lifestyle Spreading

The notion that not having children is more moral than having them has an inherent, self-defeating obstacle in achieving widespread popularity. Its own adherents are inherently less likely to have children to carry on their values; they’re less likely to acquire the money needed for power and influence, and they’re less likely to feel the militant need to proselytize. None of this has stopped the antinatalist movement from growing in popularity in recent years.

Nor has the popularity of being a child-free woman deteriorated. In 2006, there were nine million childless women of childbearing age in the United States. By 2022, that number had grown to 21.9 million. Over the same time span, the U.S. population hadn’t come anywhere close to doubling (specifically, it went from 298 million to 338 million).

Even if a huge number of these women decide to have children after all, consider that after a woman reaches age 30, her odds of having a miscarriage or stillbirth increase dramatically. The risk reaches about 40-50% higher when a woman reaches age 40. Biological clocks are running faster and more urgently than many people realize.^[6]

4 Lowering Birth Options

With a potential baby bust on the horizon and so many wealthy futurists concerned about it, it would be sensible to make birth centers abundantly available to lower the cost by increasing the supply of providers. That has been almost the opposite of the American approach to the problem. Between 2011 and 2023, 217 hospitals stopped offering birth center services.

Instead of the closures stopping in 2024, the rate actually increased dramatically, so that 26 had stopped providing this service at the time of writing. Gynecological and perinatal services were generally still offered at these hospitals, but many women in rural areas had to have their delivery far out of state or turn to midwives whether they wanted to or not.

The reason for this is a matter of insurance providers. More than 40% of insurance coverage for births is through Medicaid instead of private or employer insurance, and the percentage is even higher in rural areas. Medicaid compensates hospitals less than half as much as private companies do. This is why these hospitals tend to withdraw these services in rural areas, particularly in states where Medicaid coverage is less generous.^[7]

3 One Child Desirability

Of course, tens of millions of women have overcome all these obstacles and reproduced. Many of them have, after experiencing the ordeal of childbirth, settled on having one. This is a perfectly reasonable course of action. A 2022 report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reviewed 188 studies and found that having a single child is where couples find the highest level of satisfaction, having achieved the biological necessity of reproducing without taking on too much time pressure among other concerns.

The issue remains that the replacement level birth rate is 2.1. The rate of women who only have one child during their childbearing years has been growing over the years, doubling from 1976 to 2015 from 11% to 22%. China’s One-Child Policy from 1979 to 2015 provides plenty of warning about how too many couples with one child can be a destabilizing matter for broader society, even though it can be highly desirable for the individual home.^[8]

2 Climate Change

Regardless of whether the changes in the climate are anthropogenic or the result of natural cycles beyond human control, the rate and extremity of climate disasters are alarming, and the severity is increasing. These sorts of concerns are taking their toll on the confidence potential parents have in the future. A July 2024 Pew Research poll said that of people of childbearing age who did not intend to have children, a quarter said that worries about the environment were their primary motivation.

Even if these concerns were to be removed from the heads of everyone, the fact that as of 2023, on average, every three weeks, America suffers $1 billion of damage from climate disasters does not bode well for future economic stability. For further context, in 2022, 32 million people were made refugees by natural disasters, and that was a 41% increase from 2008. If extreme environmental disasters continue, you can expect it to be a boon for the ranks of the antinatalist movement.^[9]

1 Romantic Disinterest

In recent years, people that are not able to get into romantic or sexual relationships have developed a stigma due to acts of violence by individuals dubbed “incels,” such as Tres Genco and Alek Minassian. That has probably left a lot of people less willing to discuss a hard fact about the contemporary state of relationships. Many young people aren’t just failing to enter serious, child-rearing relationships. They’re not even working for romantic relationships in general.

A Pew Research poll released in May 2024 found that only 40% of single people are interested in even a casual relationship, let alone a serious, committed one. The same poll found that among 18-29 year olds, 37% expressed no interest in relationships or dating at all. For those who might think that’s a phase people will grow out of, the fact is that the same poll showed that from ages 30-49, it’s 39% who have no interest in it.

Women were found to be substantially more likely to be uninterested (70% for women over 40 vs. 42% for men). This is likely to grow as time goes on since, reportedly, 44% of the most recent adult generation went their entire teen years without a relationship. That is a large segment of the population that will be less equipped to enter into relationships and contribute to raising the birth rate.^[10]

Giving birth is a personal and intimate experience. Some choose to do so at home, while others opt for the amenities that the hospital can offer. In some cases, however, there simply is no choice in where the baby is coming once it decides to come.

For the following women, the miracle of life happened in some strange yet memorable places, leaving them with stories to tell for years to come. Here are ten decidedly unusual places where women have given birth.

10 Walmart

While this may sound like the plot of the 2000 Natalie Portman movie Where the Heart Is, it is far from fiction.

An unnamed woman in Utah had no plans to give birth the day she went into Walmart to buy a few necessities in October 2016. After managing to complete her shopping trip, the woman and her husband went through checkout and were about to pay when she started feeling pains. By then, it became obvious that she was in labor, but before any other measures were taken, the woman insisted on paying first. Despite the manager insisting it wasn’t necessary, the woman paid for her merchandise and ended up being too far along for emergency services to get there in time to help deliver the baby.

The mother gave birth in checkout aisle 11 to a healthy baby boy before being taken to the hospital. Afterward, the store employees and managers stayed in contact with the mother and detailed their plans to throw her a baby shower, providing her with gifts such as diapers and formula and even a cake to celebrate the birth of the baby.^[1]

This is not the first baby to be born in a Walmart. Similar incidents have occurred in Georgia, Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Virginia, New York, Indiana, and Quebec, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “one-stop shop.”

9 McDonald’s

Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day, and at a Sarasota, Florida, McDonald’s in December 2016, it was an important time of the day for a completely different reason.

April Jones was visiting her local McDonald’s to have breakfast with her mother during the latter’s shift on a regular Saturday morning. What April didn’t expect was for her breakfast to be interrupted by a man calling for help. Sean Jordan and his expecting wife Cathy, along with their two-year old son, had also stopped in McDonald’ for a quick bite to eat. While waiting for her food, Cathy had experienced a sudden need to use the restroom, and while she was in there, she began to go into labor. She called for help and was heard by her husband, who alerted the restaurant. A person in the next stall offered Cathy her jacket once Cathy announced she was in labor. Thankfully, April, a nurse who works with the elderly, was able to go to the mother’s aid.

By the time April joined the mother in the bathroom stall, Cathy had already started crowning. At this time, it also became obvious that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck. April was able to turn the baby boy and loosen the cord, but he was blue and not breathing on his own. Paramedics arrived on the scene, helping April cut the cord, and the baby was given oxygen.

The paramedics took both mother and son to the ambulance for treatment, and April was allowed to see them before they were taken to the hospital. At this point, the baby boy was breathing on his own and had opened his eyes.^[2] The experience had April considering going back to school to become a registered nurse and work in labor and delivery, deciding that she was, in fact, “lovin’ it.”

8 Chick-Fil-A

When a baby decides it’s on its way, the time between labor and delivery varies greatly. For one mother, making a pit stop on the way to the hospital didn’t seem to be a problem. Falon Griffin went into labor in July 2018 and was en route to the hospital when she and her husband Robert had to drop their two daughters off with a friend. The meeting point chosen? A San Antonio Chick-fil-A.

While Robert was bringing the girls over to meet their friend, Falon had a serious urge to use the restroom. Despite already being in labor, she managed to get out of the car and ask the manager if she could be allowed in. The manager agreed, but it turned out that Falon’s need to use the restroom was a sign of the labor progressing, and the baby was no longer waiting to get to the hospital to arrive.^[3]

Thankfully, the staff helped Falon and Robert, bringing them towels and standing by as Robert used his shirt to help deliver his newborn daughter right in the bathroom stall. The umbilical cord had been wrapped around the baby’s neck, not once but twice, yet Robert was able to loosen it without alerting his wife to the setback. The baby, named Gracelyn, was born in the bathroom stall, and the manager and Chick-fil-A staff warmed up towels to keep her warm until the paramedics arrived minutes later.

After the birth, the store owner pledged that Gracelyn would be able to eat free food there for life and would be guaranteed a job if she wanted it. The manager and staff were so excited that they consulted with the owner so that when Gracelyn turns one, her first birthday can be celebrated in the exact same place she was born.

7 Lifeboat

The use of lifeboats is normally reserved for dire circumstances, when it’s necessary to save the lives of others—or in this case, to help bring a new life into the world. On the Scottish island of Mull, the ferry runs only from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, leaving the emergency lifeboat as the only alternative to get back to the mainland. So at around 5:00 AM on August 3, 2009, Junelle Wilson and her husband boarded the Oban lifeboat, hoping they could get to the mainland in time for the paramedics waiting for them at the dock to take them to the hospital.

Junelle had realized she was going into labor, and due to the lack of alternatives, she and her husband made the call for the emergency lifeboat to take them. What Junelle didn’t expect was for her contractions to continue to increase and for her baby to decide that right then and there was the best time to come into the world, on a lifeboat in the bay just five minutes from Oban Harbor.^[4] Thankfully, the Oban lifeboat crew were prepared, and there was a midwife on board ready to help Junelle deliver her baby. With their help, Junelle gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and about 12 hours after she boarded the lifeboat, both Junelle and her son, Van Harris, were boarding the ferry to go back home.

For the crew of the Oban lifeboat, delivering babies is nothing new. Van Harris is one of four babies to have been born on the lifeboat as of 2016 and was the only boy so far.

6 Street Corner

Getting a cab in New York City can be difficult and time-consuming, but for one mother, getting a taxi was the least of her worries. Polly McCourt started to feel ill one afternoon in February 2014. After sending her oldest kid to a playground with a friend, calling for their babysitter to watch her youngest, and heading home, Polly’s symptoms started to worsen. She called her doctor, and Polly was instructed to go to the hospital—immediately.^[5]

By the time she made it into the lobby of her apartment building after calling her husband, her water had broke. Her doorman had already hailed a cab for her, which arrived at the same moment Polly realized she wouldn’t be making it into the cab, let alone to the hospital. The baby was coming now, right there on the sidewalk outside her building. With the help of her doorman and a crowd that had gathered, Polly delivered her baby girl outside her home.

A woman named Isabel Williams offered Polly and her newborn daughter her coat. Polly and her husband Cian, who arrived three minutes after their daughter was born, named the baby Ila Isabel, her middle name chosen for the kindness bestowed upon them by a stranger.

5 Airplane

In what was supposed to be a routine flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, those on board received a different sort of in-flight entertainment. Despite sounding like the introduction for a TV show, a baby was born during a JetBlue flight in February 2019. The mother had boarded the plane and seemed fine, though it became obvious during the flight that the situation was about to take a turn.

Somewhere between Puerto Rico and Florida, the mother began to go into labor, and thanks to the staff on board, she was able to deliver a baby boy with no complications. The mother and baby were reported to be fine and were met on the ground by paramedics who checked them both over.

Despite the chaos of having a baby being delivered on the plane, the flight ended up arriving 11 minutes ahead of schedule.^[6] The baby is officially JetBlue’s youngest customer to ever fly with them. Coincidentally, the plane which hosted the birth is named “Born to Be Blue.”

Babies being born on planes isn’t exactly unheard-of. In 2017, a woman gave birth prematurely to a baby during her Jet Airways flight from Saudi Arabia to India, and the baby was given free plane tickets for life by the airline.

4 Six Flags

Theme parks are full of happiness, time spent with the family, adventure, and sometimes even unexpected surprises. In July 2018, a Georgia mom named Crusita was enjoying the day at the park with her daughter in Hurricane Harbor at Six Flags when she realized that something was off. She took her daughter with her to the first aid post and informed them that she was pretty certain she was going into labor.

The Six Flags team acted quickly, calling emergency responders in to help Crusita, and although they arrived quickly, Crusita was already too far along to make it to the hospital. Instead, Crusita had her baby in the theme park with no complications. The baby boy, named Matthew, was the second baby to be born at the park.^[7]

To celebrate the birth of Matthew, Six Flags offered both him and his mother Diamond Elite Memberships, allowing them to enter any Six Flags park for free for the rest of their lives.

3 New York Taxi

As the saying goes, when you know, you know. Chantal McKenna had been experiencing contractions since midnight one morning in July 2017. At 7:30 AM, she knew it was time to go to the hospital. Unfortunately, going anywhere in New York takes a bit of time, even if it’s just grabbing the elevator in your own apartment building.

Chantal and her husband, Mark, along with their doula, gathered up their things and headed to the elevator, which they found filled. Even though Mark announced that Chantal was in labor and had to go to the hospital, their neighbors only moved out of the way and then rode the elevator the whole 24 floors down while Chantal battled her contractions.^[8]

By the time they got to the bottom, their Uber had already left. Thankfully, their doorman was able to catch them a cab even though it was the morning rush hour. As the taxi crept through the slow-moving traffic, Chantal’s contractions kept speeding up, and by the time they got to Central Park, Chantal was well-aware that she was going to have her baby right there, in the back of the cab. The baby was born only a few minutes later, surprising both the doula and Chantal, who went to check on how far along Chantal was and found her baby’s head sticking out.

The cab driver had pulled over by that time, and emergency personnel were called, all while a crowd gathered, cheering and congratulating the couple. Paramedics checked out the newly named Josef, who was completely healthy, and the family was transported to the hospital—but not before paying their fare and generously tipping their cab driver.

2 A Strip Club Parking Lot

Nate Jones and his wife, Amenze, had planned out the delivery of their baby, but their plans were derailed on the way to the hospital in March 2011 when Nate was pulled over for speeding. Even though they weren’t given a ticket, their timetable was now cut short, and Amenze warned her husband that there was no way she was going to make it to the hospital.

Nate chose to pull into the nearest parking lot so that he could call 911. The parking lot in question was that of Flashdancers, a popular Arlington, Texas, strip club. The strip club was not unfamiliar to Nate, a reporter for the local newspaper who had covered the club on a few occasions. Their plans were once again changed when it was discovered that no one from the emergency medical personnel called in had ever delivered a baby before. Thankfully, Amanze knew what to expect, as did Nate, with this being their third child. With the help of paramedics, they were able to deliver their baby boy safely into the world.

Bouncers kept the growing crowd at bay; no longer were patrons interested in the show inside but were more focused on what was going outside. The baby, named William, was taken to the hospital and given a clean bill of health.^[9]

1 Inside A Hospital Elevator

Getting to the hospital in time can be one of the hardest struggles for mothers when their child decides to change its arrival plans. One mother, Katie Thacker, had the opposite problem in January 2012. After getting safely to the St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband, mom, sister, and midwife in tow, Katie was transported along with three nurses to the 14th floor in order for her to give birth.^[10] On the way there, however, the elevator made an unplanned stop on floor 12. Deciding to get off to give Katie more space, as her contractions were increasing, her husband (Luke), mom, and sister got off and chose to take the stairs to the 14th floor. However, when they arrived, there was no elevator.

After the doors shut back on the 12th floor, the elevator seemed to have malfunctioned, leaving Katie and the nurses stuck between floors. Despite calling in the fire department for aid and reaching out to the elevator company in an attempt to get the elevator up and running again, the baby came before they could be freed. Katie gave birth in the elevator with the help of the nurses and her midwife while information was given to her husband through the nurses’ walkie-talkies. By the time they were able to get the elevator doors slightly ajar, almost two hours later, Luke was able to climb down and cut the umbilical cord.

The baby boy was handed up by his father through the doors and over to nurses. The infant was deemed to be healthy and in perfect shape. Katie and Luke decided to nickname their son Otis, after the company whose elevator he was delivered in.

The idea of using contraceptives is as old as time. Due to the advanced medicine of today, we have many forms available to suit anyone’s needs, but this wasn’t always the case. From stealthy pessaries to handcrafted condoms, the birth control devices of old range from ineffective to bizarre.

The first birth control clinic in the US was opened in 1916 in New York City by Margaret Sanger, an advocate for the right to contraceptive use.^[1] The approval of such offices appears to have been controversial even back then, as the first one had a difficult time finding doctors and was quickly shut down after its initial opening. Still, professionals carried on with their work in the pursuit to find and refine contraceptive methods. Their efforts have transformed into the popular techniques we now use today.

While it is difficult to find surviving contraceptive devices of old due to most of the materials being small and made of biodegradable substances, a glance at record books and historical populations gives hints to the fact that some form or other of birth control was most likely in use among different cultures throughout the course of history.

10 Breastfeeding

It is common knowledge that ovulating women can get pregnant unless they are using some form of contraceptive. This cycle can be affected by stress, fluctuating hormones, poor diet choices, and other medical conditions, though. When women do not menstruate for three months or more, it is then considered abnormal and called amenorrhea. The state when a monthly cycle is interrupted is not always a cause for concern and can even occur naturally.

One natural event that results in a woman not ovulating is pregnancy. A lesser-known fact is that if a woman nurses a young baby of fewer than six months old, there is a reaction within the brain from the suckling process that can stop her body from releasing an egg. The process ensures she is not able to become pregnant while still caring for a newborn. To take advantage of this natural period of infertility and utilize it as a form of birth control, a woman can continue to breastfeed her baby at regular intervals using the Lactation Amenorrhea Method, or LAM.

In ancient times, LAM was not only well-known but commonly practiced. Purposefully or not, a woman would sometimes maintain the breastfeeding cycle for up to three years to keep from becoming pregnant. The natural use of this technique particularly kept nomadic families to relatively small sizes, making it easier to maintain their roaming lifestyle.^[2]

9 Animal Intestines And Fish Membranes

The use of condoms is not new, though it is difficult to nail down exactly when they first became popular because the materials used were biodegradable and often did not survive the wear of time. It was realized early on, though, that a protective covering could help prevent pregnancy, and over the years, multiple forms were tested. Animal materials won the prize and were widely regarded as the most effective and readily available. Interestingly enough, though, the condom was used more frequently to protect against venereal diseases instead of pregnancy, as conditions such as syphilis were common and widespread. A well known tenth-century Persian physician, Al-Akhawayni Bukhari, would even recommend a gallbladder to his patients as protection against illness.

When the use of condoms became more popular, pharmacies began to regularly stock certain brands and styles. One of the common brands was the “goldbeater.” Made of animal intestines, the thin material was originally developed for use in processing gold leaf, hence its given name. However, the finely pounded skin was also found to be perfect for use as a condom because it was reasonably waterproof and flexible and had great durability.

While all of these materials worked well and were readily accessible, a fish membrane, specifically the swim bladder, became the condom of choice for its superior quality and protection against pregnancy and syphilis.^[3]

8 Silphium And Related Flora

Silphium is a now-extinct plant due to its popular use as a natural contraceptive in the ancient world. Thought to be related to the fennel family, the plant grew in the area of what is now modern-day Libya and was cultivated for its resin. Because of its extreme effectiveness and desirability, images of the flora even appeared on the currency of the civilization where it was most popular.

Unfortunately, the plant was quickly used up, and the exact family to which silphium belonged is still uncertain, though it has been speculated to perhaps still be in existence as a misidentified flower. Interestingly, the seed of the silphium plant is depicted as being heart-shaped, leading a few to believe that the plant may have become the modern-day symbol of love.^[4]

Another couple of plants known to cause abortions and infertility are pennyroyal and Queen Anne’s lace. The oil and seeds of these weeds are used in some medicines, cooking applications, and herbal remedies. The danger in the use of pennyroyal, though, is that the amount needed to cause an abortion can also cause kidney and liver damage. Queen Anne’s lace is a little bit safer if you know what you’re doing but is also technically classified as a poisonous plant.

Another problem with these supplements is that they can easily be confused with different and more deadly versions. Despite the foreboding issues, both types are still used by herbalists and in poor communities.

7 Lysol Douches

A douche is known today as a feminine hygiene product, but it was also widely thought to be usable as a method of contraception when first introduced. As a douche is used to “wash out” the inside of the vagina, the idea was that sperm, too, would be rinsed out after coition. In fact, the idea is completely backward and could actually help push material up into the uterus and assist with pregnancy.

Another issue with douching as a method of contraception is that the water used inside a douche used to be mixed with disinfectants like Lysol.^[5] This was considered the same as using spermicides; however, regular washing changes the chemical composition of the inner vaginal walls. As this part of the body is naturally a hostile environment for sperm, the process most likely left ladies’ insides more vulnerable to diseases and pregnancy than before the wash.

6 Plant Resin And Animal Feces

A tried and true natural spermicide can be made from a paste of acacia tree gum and honey. Acacia ferments and produces lactic acid, which will kill sperm if they come into contact with it.

The mixture was soaked in cotton and placed into the vagina in ancient Egypt, but this wasn’t the only natural spermicide that was popularly used.^[6] Everything from crocodile to elephant dung has been rumored to work and were also utilized often throughout parts of Asia.

5 Rythmeter

During the early years of the 1900s, birth control was more controversial than ever. On the one hand, there was an entire church following completely against contraceptives, and on the other, people were realizing that a substantial financial burden could be avoided merely by having fewer children. For this reason, scientists were looking closely into the science of contraception and exactly when a woman was and wasn’t fertile.^[7]

The problem was that most doctors studied animals and assumed women’s systems were the same; they soon found this not to be true. Upon the realization that doctors had been basing their observations off inaccurate subjects, scientists began delving further into the mystery of a woman’s fertile period. From these studies, a technical device known as a “Rythmeter” developed.

The complicated-looking wheel was meant for a woman to use as a calendar of her menstrual cycle and was supposed to help calculate when she was in a safe “rhythm” of infertility. Unfortunately, every body is different, and a lot of outside factors can come into play when trying to calculate virility. Although it was popular, compared to actual contraceptive devices like condoms, it was by far not the most effective.

4 Cervical Caps

The cervical cap has been around for centuries and only fell out of popularity recently because condoms and the pill became more widespread. However, it is making a comeback as a formidable means of birth control.

Usually used with another spermicide, the cervical cap is smaller than a diaphragm and creates a barrier around the cervix that sperm cannot get through. Through the centuries, such devices have been produced, even en masse, in the form of leather, metal, and plastic. One of the most famously creative ones, though, may have come from the notes of Giacomo Casanova.

Casanova, one of the more prominent historical figures known for his charm, noted in his memoirs the use of half a lemon as a cervical cap. Accompanying this with either a goat bladder or linen condom was one of his tried and true methods to prevent pregnancy. The acidity of the lemon most likely acted as a natural spermicide and probably accomplished its task relatively well.^[8]

3 Electrocautery

For years, multiple types of sterilization techniques have been tested in the medical world in an attempt to limit populations and to prevent those with medical issues from getting pregnant. Today, tube tying is particularly common for women, especially after having children, as a way to prevent a family from growing any larger. The primary benefit of this method is that it can often be undone, but this was not always the case.

One technique that was often endeavored and used in the late 1800s was that of electrocautery.^[9] Cauterization by the use of running electricity through metal rods was not uncommon, and it only made sense that this could be performed on the fallopian tubes. Using electrodes to seal off the pathways was meant to prevent eggs from becoming fertilized.

The technique was not necessarily known for being successful and caused more concern for safety than anything. However, it was popularly attempted for decades.

2 Rue, Pepper, And Pomegranate Seeds

Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi suggested a mixture of rue juice and pepper to be taken as the historical equivalent of a morning after pill. The herbal concoction was supposed to induce abortions, but the efficacy is up for questioning.^[10]

The Greeks, on the other hand, believed pomegranate seeds would reduce fertility, and it has been scientifically shown that rats that are fed the fruit do become less fertile.

1 Lead And Mercury

Perhaps the most truly dangerous contraceptive was seen in ancient China. Women in imperial times would intentionally drink metals such as mercury and lead to ensure that they didn’t become pregnant.^[11]

Today, we know that such substances would not only render you infertile but also make you extremely sick or crazy, result in organ failure, or cause other permanent damage. Unfortunately, the practice was relatively effective at preventing pregnancy and is known to have been in widespread use throughout the course of history.

A freelance writer of content and copy living the dream of a digital nomad. Learning skills and exploring new places is my favorite hobby.

Why did the Egyptians turn their dead into mummies and inter their pharaohs in large tombs? How did famous movie figures like the Scorpion King and Imhotep carve their names in history? Facts of the earliest days of Egypt are found only on incomplete shards and in weathered tombs, but what we do know tells us an incredible story.

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10 The Birth of the Sahara Desert

8,000 years ago, the Sahara was fertile and green. Farmers produced grains and millets in peace until — little did they know — gravitational influences from the solar system changed the Earth’s tilt by one degree,^[1] causing a flood of sunlight to permanently hit the Sahara. Almost instantly, it turned into a scorching desert, expanding, leaving dead crops in its wake, chasing the farmers to the Oases where they became stranded like shipwrecked survivors. Many sought refuge in the Nile, a resilient river that the Sahara could not encroach upon because of its regular flooding.

For the survivors of the Sahara, the Nile was no paradise. High floods devastated their settlements. But soon the Egyptians were able to predict the flooding by watching the star Sirius’s path through the night sky.^[2] When the flood waters receded, the land left behind was fertile thanks to sediments in the water. Organizing their lives around the flooding of the Nile, the ancient Egyptians divided their year into three seasons: the inundation, the growth, and the harvest.

9 The Scorpion King

The ancient Egyptians established two main kingdoms around 3400BC: the Lower Kingdom at the northern mouth of the Nile (called lower because the Nile flows down from the south), and the Upper Kingdom in the southern desert lands.

During this era, a king from the Upper Kingdom arose whose name was known only as “Scorpion.”^[3] He invaded and conquered, his aim to unite all the lands of ancient Egypt. The people developed a crude form of writing and it was used to record the Scorpion King’s exploits.^[4] This form of writing would soon evolve into what we know today as hieroglyphs, the written language of ancient Egypt. However, the Scorpion King died before he could accomplish his goal. The two kingdoms remained separate.

Facts about the Scorpion King’s life are rare archaeological finds. A stone relief that bears his name is possibly the oldest writing in human existence. Archaeologists have discovered a fragmented royal mace-head attributed to the Scorpion King. And they have found what many believe to be his tomb in Abydos, containing relics inscribed with some of Egypt’s earliest known writing.^[5] There may have been more clues inside, but we may never know. Treasure hunters had plundered the tomb long ago.

8 The Divine King Invents Luxury

100 years after the Scorpion King had failed, another succeeded. From the Upper Kingdom city of Hierkanpolis came a man named Menes.^[6] First he conquered his neighbors, then he marched on Lower Egypt and united the two lands, and then he marched on barbarian hordes and expanded the borders of his new kingdom. He sealed the unification by marrying a Lower Egyptian princess.

Under Menes, the land was at peace. He founded the capital, Memphis, by building a dike in the Nile and reclaiming the marshland. He escaped rabid hounds by jumping on the back of a crocodile and riding it to another shore, where he founded the city of Crocodilopolis. Menes’ people, their lives free from major worries, developed sports, sculpting, woodworking, and even learned how to brew beer. Egypt became a land of opulence. The Roman historian Diodorus Siculus claimed that Menes invented the concept of luxury. After 62 years of prosperity, Menes met a violent end when he was chewed to death by a hippopotamus.

7 Egypt’s Oldest Mystery

If you think stories about Menes may sound a bit like the exaggerated exploits of “The Most Interesting Man In The World,” historians agree. No one yet has discovered any contemporary evidence of Menes’s existence. All of his stories come from later in history, leading some to believe he is a fictionalized folk hero, or that “Menes” is an honorary title given to many individual rulers. The name meaning of Menes is “he who endures.”^[7]

Menes’ true identity is one of the great mysteries in Egyptian history. The prevailing theory is that he was actually Narmer,^[8] the first recorded king of the First Dynasty, or his successor Hor-Aha, or both. Hor-Aha may be Menes because there are many hieroglyphs that associate the names of the two. However, archaeologists have discovered the Tablet of Narmer, a stone relief with many vague allusions to Narmer’s possible identity as Menes. Most telling is that the front of the palette shows Narmer wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt while on the back he is wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt. The crown of the pharaohs would go on to be a combination of these two crowns. Many Egyptologists believe this implies that Narmer was the unifier of ancient Egypt, and therefore King Menes.

6 Mummies

Before 3500BC, the Egyptians buried their dead in shallow graves. The dryness of the sand, the heat of the day and the cold of the night, and the lack of air in the grave dehydrated the body, causing it to be naturally preserved. The ancient Egyptians developed the belief^[9] that the soul would return to its body after death, but if the soul could not recognize its body because of decay, the soul would become lost. They began aiding the natural preservation process by dehydrating bodies with sunlight or fire, and by curing the flesh with smoke.^[10]

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5 Mastabas

Religious beliefs and the obsession with the afterlife flourished under Hor-Aha. The type of tomb he built for himself was called a mastaba,^[11] which looks like the lower level of a pyramid without the other levels stacked on top — imagine a pyramid cut off after the second step. However, bodies not stored in the arid sand were separated from the natural preservation process. Since the kings still wanted to be buried securely with their possessions, this led the ancient Egyptians to develop mummification techniques so their bodies would not rot away in their luxurious tombs.

4 The Earliest Known Female Ruler

When the First Dynasty queen Merneith’s husband died around 2990BC, her son Den was made king. Den was too young to rule effectively, and so Merneith ruled as queen regent, making her the first female ruler in recorded history.^[12]

How long Merneith’s regency lasted is unknown. Den’s reign spanned 50 years, and during that time Epypt expanded militarily and economically, so much so that Den is regarded the greatest pharaoh of the First Dynasty. But how much of that can be credited to his mother? It is impossible to know for certain, but what we do know is that Merneith’s tomb was as luxurious as any king, which was not typical of a queen mother. Entombed with her were 40 servants, sacrificed animals, and even a solar boat. Such boats were assembled within tombs so that mummies could use them to sail in the heavens with Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun.

3 Free Women

While ancient Egyptian wives^[13] tended to manage the home, there were no restrictions that kept women from pursuing an independent lifestyle. Any woman that chose a career would receive equal pay for equal work. Women managed farms or businesses, worked in the fields, or as weavers, nannies, entertainers.

There were no known marriage ceremonies in ancient Egypt. The wife simply moved into a home with the husband and they were considered married, similar to today’s common-law relationship. The wife could divorce by moving back into her parents’ home, at which point she would be free to remarry. A woman’s ability to give birth was considered more important than her virginity, so she was able to get married and divorced multiple times, and single people were free to have sex before marriage.

Although the sexes were closer to equality in ancient Egypt than they would be in many civilizations to follow,^[14] things were not perfect. Women were punished more harshly than men after committing adultery.^[15] An adulterous man was forced into a divorce, but the woman was believed to receive punishments as extreme as execution.

2 The Dark Dynasty

Egypt continued to prosper under the reigns of the rulers who followed Merneith. The First Dynasty ended when the two potential heirs of King Qa’a quarreled for the throne. The details are lost to history, but what is known is that a third party intervened and claimed the throne for himself, beginning a new royal line. Little is known of the Second Dynasty of Egypt because records of the time were poorly kept, have not been found, or were destroyed.

The sparse records^[16] do tell us that it was a chaotic and unusual period of Egyptian history. Traditionally the kings had aligned themselves with Horus, the god who in the myths had become king of all Egypt. But one king allied himself with Seth, the god of the desert and bringer of chaos.

1 Imhotep

The Third Dynasty began with King Djoser in 2670 BC, whose peacefully reign allowed for the building of many monuments. A commoner by the name of Imhotep^[17] rose through the ranks to become Djoser’s most trusted adviser. Imhotep was one of the smartest people in human history, and was both a doctor and an architect. He authored a medical papyrus devoid of magical thinking that contained practical cures and surgeries, as well as described anatomies and ailments. He was the first architect to come up with the idea of using support columns for building, and he designed the first ever pyramid. The tomb of Djoser ushered in the age of the pyramid builders, also known as the Old Kingdom. In the ages to follow, Imhotep was venerated as a god of healing and wisdom.

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About The Author: Matt is a former editor and current knight at Medieval Times. Check out his old blog for extended articles and other neat stuff.