In olden times, how did prostitutes and other loose women keep from becoming pregnant?

I'm thinking in particular of someplace like Feudal Japan, clearly before the advent of condoms and oral contraception. They still had prostitutes, and people still got laid. How did these women deal with the pregnancy issue? I'm thinking perhaps there was an herbal solution, or the horror of repeated abortions.

Probably the oldest methods of contraception (aside from sexual abstinence) are coitus interruptus, certain barrier methods, and herbal methods.

There are historic records of Egyptian women using a pessary (a vaginal suppository) made of various acidic substances and lubricated with honey or oil, which may have been somewhat effective at killing sperm. Asian women may have used oiled paper as a cervical cap, and Europeans may have used beeswax for this purpose. The condom appeared sometime in the 17th century, initially made of a length of animal intestine. It was not particularly popular, nor as effective as modern latex condoms, but was employed both as a means of contraception and in the hopes of avoiding syphilis, which was greatly feared and devastating prior to the discovery of antibiotic drugs.

The witch hunts were the first measure the modern state took in an attempt to eliminate knowledge about birth control within the population, and monopolize it in the hands of state-employed male medical specialists (gynecologists). Prior to the witch hunts, male specialists were unheard of, because birth control was naturally a female domain.

Not until the 1950s, when scientists better understood the functioning of the menstrual cycle and the hormones that controlled it, were methods of hormonal contraception and modern methods of fertility awareness (also called natural family planning) developed.

Sort of interesting, huh?

HaHa!! "Loose women", that's hilarious!

they ate poison jkjk i think it was some kind of plant thing they ate

i dont actually know, especially about Japan, but im guessing scary do-it-yourself abortions, or living in hiding, or getting married right away when their luck ran out.

Clearly they didn't. You work 9 solid months. Then vacation for 3

I'm not sure, but I think they made themselves have a miscarriage by hitting there stomach really hard against a wall or something. I've heard that somewhere but I'm not completely sure if its true...

pull-out method? =D

NO LOL i don't know.