Primitive pregnancy tests: what kind of folk remedy-diagnostics tests were used to determine pregnancy.......?

Question

Before modern tests and before it becomes obvious...?

When a woman missed a period and wasn’t sure, how could they test to determine if it was due to pregnancy or stress?

What kind of detectable chemical changes take place?

What materials would be used to detect the changes…?

I’m guessing some kind of plant or other natural (relatively unprocessed) material.

What plant or animal would it come from?

What substitutes might be used if the most commonly used variety was not available?

DISCLAIMER:

NO ACTUAL SEX WILL TAKE PLACE DURING THE WRITING OF THIS NOVEL.

So hurry up and answer, because if you don't, there's a lot of frustrated couples out there who are starting to get angry, and I won't lift a finger to protect you from them.

Answer 1

The ancient Egyptians watered bags of wheat and barley with the urine of a possibly pregnant woman. Germination indicated pregnancy, and based on what type of grain sprouted they predicted the gender of the fetus. Hippocrates suggested that a woman who had missed her period should drink a solution of honey in water at bedtime. Resulting abdominal distention and cramps would indicate the presence of a pregnancy. Avicenna and many physicians after him in the Middle Ages performed uroscopy, a nonscientific method to evaluate urine. Selmar Aschheim and Bernhard Zondek introduced testing based on the presence of hCG in 1928.[7]

In the Aschheim and Zondek test an infantile female mouse was injected subcutaneously with urine of the person to be tested, and some time later the mouse was killed and dissected. Presence of ovulation indicated that the urine contained hCG and meant that the person was pregnant. A similar test was developed using immature rabbits, the rabbit test. Here, too, it was necessary to kill the animal to check its ovaries. An improvement arrived with the frog test that was still used in the 1950s. A female frog was injected with serum or urine of the patient. If the frog produced eggs within the next 24 hours, the test was positive. In the frog test, the animal remained alive, and could be used again.

Answer 2

Some doctors offices don't even test urine, and others do. I'm sure the tests that they use they buy wholesale because they need to buy such a big supply of them. But if the box says that they are 99.9% accurate, I don't think it really matters. Even if they are sold for 99 cents. I think the differences in some of them are how early they can detect pregnancy(those cost more) and the digital ones(those cost way more!) Hope this helps =]

Answer 3

Hmm....well. They trusted their bodies. That's the great thing about life before technology. We didnt NEED diagnostic tests to confirm a pregnancy, we just trusted our bodies, like some women today do. Just like we trusted our bodies to give birth at home, instead of in a hospital hooked up to every machine possible.

And I'll bet if we combined modern technology with a little more trust in our bodies, we could have much better outcomes through pregnancy and birth than we do. Using diagnostic testing, technology, and intervention where it is warranted (instead of in EVERY pregnancy) and trusting women's bodies to grow and give birth to their babies could change everything about the way the world looks at reproduction.

Answer 4

Back then women waited to see if they got their period or not. Along with the other symptoms (breast tenderness, AM sickness, etc).

I don't believe there had anything other than the language of their own bodies. Doctors didn't deliver babies in the days of yore, midwives did. Women weren't allowed to be examined by doctors.

Now if you asked how they tested for diabetes, I could tell you that doctors would taste that patient's urine and if it was sweet that was indicative of blood sugar issues.

Answer 5

they would inject your urine in the rabbit After a week they would cut the rabbit open and look at the ovaries. They could tell from the rabbits ovaries if you were pregnant or not.

Answer 6

THey used to take blood and inject it into a rabbit. If it died, you were pregnant. THat's why some pregnant females used to say they killed the easter bunny....

Answer 7

I know they used to take the womans urine and inject it into a rabbit. If the rabbit died, she was pregnant.

Answer 8

I guess all that they did was wait and see!

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