Vagina MuseumJan 20, 2023
Quick quiz! How common do you think pregnancy before marriage was in 18th century America? What percentage of babies were conceived out of wedlock at the time?
8%
4%
18%
17.1%
38%
46.3%
58%
32.6%
Poll ended at .
Show threadVagina MuseumJan 20, 2023

The answer to this question is that we don't know for sure, because there aren't enough records to tell exactly what the population average was.

However, what we *can* tell you, from a primary source of the extensive diaries of Martha Ballard, a midwife in rural Maine between 1785 and 1812, among her patients 38% of them had conceived before getting married.

Show threadVagina MuseumJan 20, 2023
Born in 1735, Martha Ballard kept a daily diary covering her life, her work, and the weather in the Massachusetts frontier in present-day Maine. The diary spans 27 years and has over 1400 pages. From this rich data, lots of things can be inferred, such as that people on the frontiers did a lot of fucking in the early summer, because there were seasonal spikes of births in February-April.
Show threadWayofCats
@vagina_museum Take a bath and celebrate, essentially 🤣
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:59pmWeb