Abstract
Physicians in Greece were instrumental in influencing some people’s reproductive histories through their advice to couples not to have more children for health reasons. Such advice would occasionally include guidance on how to avoid pregnancies. Couples invariably followed their advice, even though some of them would have liked more children. This happened to a lesser degree in the 1930s, but much more often from the late 1940s onwards. Moreover, physicians’ advice left no room for objections to the use of birth control on the part of either the husband or the wife, obliging the couple to unite and shape their birth control plans. In short, medical advice tended to make the receiving couple determined contraceptors, especially after the occasional ‘accident’.
No. 5D. The informant explained that medicine is not only a scientific field but it ‘borrows from many other fields too’, pointing out that a significant part of medicine is the art of engaging with people, understanding their needs and responding to those.
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Notes
- 1.
J. Keown (1988) Abortion, Doctors, and the Law: Some Aspects of the Legal Regulation of Abortion in England from 1803 to 1982 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 166; Barbara Brookes (1988) Abortion in England, 1900–1967 (London: Routledge). However, Jones focuses on non-physicians (Emma Louise Jones (2007) ‘Abortion in England, 1861–1967’ (unpublished PhD thesis: Royal Holloway, University of London)).
- 2.
James C. Mohr (1978) Abortion in America. The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800–1900 (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 162–70, 238–9. Reagan also outlined how individual physicians reacted—on many occasions—positively to women who sought abortion (Leslie J. Reagan (1997) When Abortion was a Crime. Women, Medicine and Law in the United States, 1867–1973 (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 60–70).
- 3.
Keown, Abortion, p. 166; Brookes, Abortion.
- 4.
Keown, Abortion; Brookes, Abortion; Richard Soloway (1982) Birth Control and the Population Question in England, 1877–1930 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press), Chap. 12; Carole Joffe (1991) ‘Portraits of Three “Physicians of Conscience”: Abortion before Legalization in the United States’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 2(1), 46–67.
- 5.
John Peel (1964) ‘Contraception and the Medical Profession’, Population Studies, 18(2), 113–25; Raúl Necochea López (2014) A History of Family Planning in Twentieth-century Peru (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press).
- 6.
Peel, ‘Contraception’, 137–43.
- 7.
Marie Stopes (1923) Contraception (Birth Control): Its Theory, History and Practice (London: John Bale), pp. 6–7.
- 8.
F.W.A. Van Poppel and Hugo Roling (2003) ‘Physicians and Fertility Control in the Netherlands’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 34(2), 183–4.
- 9.
Poppel and Roling, ‘Physicians’, 155–85. A handful of physicians were prepared to offer advice to patients.
- 10.
Peel, ‘Contraception’, 136.
- 11.
All six physicians who were interviewed by the author attested to that, referring to their post-1950s experience. However, there is no indication that the situation differed in earlier times.
- 12.
No. 6D. The specific informant graduated in 1965.
- 13.
Violetta Hionidou (2016) ‘Popular Medicine and Empirics in Greece, 1900–1950: An Oral History Approach’, Medical History, 60(4), 492–513.
- 14.
Ygeia was one such ‘fortnightly illustrated magazine’, edited by three physicians. The opening page had four advertisements for physicians covering four different specialisations (I. Veglidou, V. Kelemene and M. Moyseides (eds) (1925) Ygeia. Dekapenthemero Egxromo Periodiko Praktikes Ygieines pros ten Hresin olon ton Koinonikon Taxeon 2 (Athens: n.p.)). Anonymous (3 November 1946) ‘ANTON. A LASKARIS Gynaikologika Metadotika Sexoualika’, Thesauros, 9(414), 25. In the small set of newspapers available online through the National Library of Greece such advertisements can be found variously from 1898 to the 1960s (http://efimeris.nlg.gr/ns/main.html). See, for example, the advertisement of 30 August 1961 for a female gynaecologist in Eleutheria, 17(5196), 5; that for a venearologist of 30 August 1961 in Eleutheria, 17(5196), 4; and four separate advertisements for various specialisations of 10 July 1965 in Makedonia, 54(17265), 4.
- 15.
Newspapers of all political affiliations are replete with such advertisements. Many have been cited throughout this monograph.
- 16.
One of the earlier public announcements on women’s sexuality, unwanted pregnancies and planned motherhood was the 1 May 1976 Proclamation of the Movement for Women’s Liberation (Kinese gia ten Apeleutherose ton Gynaikon) (Marianna Kondyle and Aggelika Psarra (1986) ‘1976–1986 EKTROSE. To Hroniko mias Diekdikeses’, Dine, 1(2), 9–12).
- 17.
See the earlier section on Public Discourse on Population Change.
- 18.
See, for example, Apostolos Doxiadis (11 September 1930) ‘Periorismos e diarrythmisis ton genneseon?’, Eleutheron Vema), and Apostolos Doxiadis (15 March 1931) Eleutheron Vema.
- 19.
Post-World War II, articles referring to birth and population control or the Pill were occasionally published in the national press, but these invariably referred to non-Greek populations. See, for example, Robin Smay (12 November 1965) ‘O Eleghos ton Genneseon ehei kataste kyrion proeklogikon thema eis Gallian (Birth Control has become the main Election Issue in France)’, Kathemerine, 47(16325); Anonymous (5 January 1966) ‘Tha Epikratese telikos o Eleghos ton Genneseon? (Will the birth control dominate eventually?)’, Kathemerine, 47(16371); Paul Parizo (26 March 1966) ‘Antisylleptika Diskia dia Iatrikous Skopous (Contraceptive Pills for Medical Purposes)’, Kathemerine, 47(16432). Even those articles were published when the government was liberal.
- 20.
The author instead emphasised his anti-communist credentials. Anastasios V. Antonopoulos (n.d.) Meta ten Thyellan tou Symmoritismou (Patras: Synadinou Bros).
- 21.
See, for example, Anonymous (22 June 1901) ‘Maieutika kai Gynaikologika Nosemata’, Empros, 5(1669), 4, referring to ‘Doctor Miss Anthe Vasileiadou’, who had just returned from Paris; Anonymous (29 September 1930) ‘Maieutike Klinike Elenes Stasinopoulou’ Akropolis, B(600), 6, a much smaller advertisement than those of her male colleagues on the same page; Anonymous (30 November 1961) ‘Rousa Plate-Konstantinidou Maieuter-Gynaikologos’, Eleutheria, 17(5276), 6. In the 1960s Eleutheria had advertisements of gynaecologists in almost every issue.
- 22.
V.A. Fotakes (January 1924) ‘Ypo poias peristaseis dikaiologetai e iatrike amvlosis’, Iatrike Proodos, 39(1), 4. My emphasis in the text.
- 23.
M. Venizelos (1881) Maieutike (Athens: n.p.), pp. 257–8, 558–9. Similar indications regarding stenosis were given by M. Meliareses (1875) O Odegos ton Eggamon. By Frederick Hollick M.D. part b, translated by M. Meliareses (Vraila: M. Pestemaltziogou), pp. 88–90.
- 24.
Fotakes, ‘Ypo poias’, 3–9. On therapeutic abortion see also Reagan (1997) When Abortion was a Crime; and Keown, Abortion, pp. 60–6.
- 25.
Tryfon K. Andrianakos (1925) E Maieytike kai Gynaikologia en Elladi (Athens: A. Sakellarios), pp. 152–3.
- 26.
See, for example, the relevant discussion in Sevasti Trubeta (2013) Physical Anthropology, Race and Eugenics in Greece (1880–1970s) (Leiden: Brill), pp. 233–6.
- 27.
M. Moyseides (1925) E Gyne. Ygieine tou Gamou kai tes Eggamou Gynaikos (Alexandreia: A. Kasigone), pp. 12–21, 50–64, 66–80, 83, 86–91. For a thorough discussion of the numerous attempts to introduce legislation on pre-marital health certification and a ban on the marriage of unhealthy individuals see Trubeta, Physical Anthropology, pp. 239–46. All such efforts failed during the examined period.
- 28.
N.N. Drakoulides (14–17 February 1932) ‘E pro tou Gamou Iatrike Exetasis’, Eleutheros Anthropos; N.N. Drakoulides (1933) Ygeia kai Gamos. Me poia mesa prostateuontai. To Progamiaio Pistopoietiko (Athens: Hronika). There were certainly dissenting voices too (Demosthenes Eleutheriades (1948) Mathemata Koinonikes Viologias, vol. 2 (Athens: n.p.), pp. 170–3).
- 29.
Drakoulides, Ygeia kai Gamos, p. 20.
- 30.
Haralambos E. Krithares (1996) Anamneseis enos Giatrou. Apo to Horio, to Nosokomeio, te Zoe (Athens: Etaireia Kytheraikon Meleton), pp. 148–50. It should be mentioned that neither syphilis nor gonorrhoea were considered to be illnesses necessitating therapeutic abortion (Fotakes , ‘Ypo poias’, 4) and therefore contraceptives had to be employed in order to avoid childbearing.
- 31.
See, for example, Apostolos Doxiadis (1933) ‘Eugonike’, Vibliotheke Koinonikes Ygieines 2, 47.
- 32.
Tryfon K. Andrianakos (1 May 1930) ‘Organosis tes Proleptikes Iatrikes pros Katapolemesin tes Tehnetes Ektroseos kai Prostasian tes Teknogonias kai tes Metrotetos (Anakoinosis en to A Panellenion Synedrion Ygieines)’, Ellenike Iatrike, 4(10), 1028. In 1954 Metropoulos was advocating that women who were obese and those using cannabis should not have children (Konstantinos Metropoulos (1954) Ygieιne tes Egkyou. Enas Polytimos Odegos gia ten Ygieine Diaviose tes Egkyou (Athens: Papademetriou), p. 139).
- 33.
Fotakes, ‘Ypo poias’, 3–9.
- 34.
G.K. Lameras (August 1929) ‘Endeixeis diakopes tes kyeseos epi kakoethon emeton’, O Praktikos Iatros 7(8), 315.
- 35.
Nikolaos Gyras (1939) Prin kai Meta ton Gamo, 4th edn (Athena: G. Vallianatou), pp. 122–3. Such induced abortions did take place (Andrianakos, E Maieytike, p. 152).
- 36.
Moyseides, E Gyne, p. 70.
- 37.
Krithares, Anamneseis, pp. 187–8.
- 38.
Similarly, one of Arnold’s informants explained how the physician insisted that she should have an abortion because the informant had taken a specific drug during the early stages of pregnancy and while she was unaware of being pregnant. The informant felt she was forced into having an abortion, while the physician informed her that having an abortion under such circumstances was legal as the eugenic clause had been introduced by then (Arnold, Childbirth, p. 120).
- 39.
Demetrios Th. Stefanou (1963) O Plethysmos tes Ges, o Periorismos ton Genneseon kai to Demografikon mas Provlema (Athens: n.p.), p. 30.
- 40.
One of Arnold’s informants mentioned that when she sought an illegal abortion the gynaecologist demanded prior to the operation that she signed a paper declaring that she was very ill and therefore in need of a therapeutic abortion (Arnold , Childbirth, p. 119, referring to the 1960 or 1970s).
- 41.
For example, see Anonymous (27 December 1950) ‘O Gynaikologos Apanta: Reply to Mellousa Kyria’, E Gynaika, 1(24), 41; Anonymous (27 February 1952) ‘O Gynaikologos Apanta: Reply to Mikre Afrikana’, E Gynaika, 3(55), 60.
- 42.
The replies of the gynaecologist would frequently suggest that the reader should visit a gynaecologist, encouraging such consultations to take place for a variety of reasons (see, e.g. (29 November 1950) ‘O Gynaikologos Apanta’, E Gynaika, 1(22), 25, where four out of seven replies recommended consulting a gynaecologist).
- 43.
Krithare’s disagreement with the local priest, whom he eventually persuaded, is an example in which the physician’s concerns about the child that would be conceived by parents in ill-health convinced the priest to accept the use of contraceptives.
- 44.
There are a couple of references to the existence of a law prohibiting the advertising of contraceptive methods (M. Moyseides (1932) Malthousianismos Allote kai Nyn. Eleghos Genneseon kai Aposteirosis (Athens: Gerardon Bros), p. 30, referring to Law 18277/2720, 30/3/1928; Heather Paxson (2004) Making Modern Mothers: Ethics and Family Planning in Urban Greece (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 53, indicating that in the 1980s it was ‘illegal to advertise contraceptives’). Similar assertions are made by Barmpouti for the 1950s to the 1980s (Alexandra Barmpouti (2019) Post-War Eugenics, Reproductive choices and Population Policies in Greece, 1950s–1980s (London: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 106–7). Neither Paxson nor Barmpouti directly reference such a law. There is no evidence that such a law may have existed. Siampos for example, in his ‘Law and Fertility in Greece’ overview, does not indicate the existence of such a law. The 1950 Penal Code did indeed prohibit any advertisement of abortion (George Siampos (1975) ‘Law and Fertility in Greece’ in Maurice Kirk, Massimo Livi Bacci and Egon Szabady (eds) Law and fertility in Europe: A study of legislation directly or indirectly affecting fertility in Europe, vol. 2 (Belgium: Ordina Editions), pp. 337–64).
- 45.
Gyras, Prin kai Meta ton Gamo, 93; D. Diamantopoulos (1957) Iatrike Egkyklopaideia tes Gynaikas (Athens: Gerolympou), p. 134; A. Sygkelakes (1927) E Apokryfe Ygieine tes Gynaikas (Alexandria: Grammata), p. 53; Alexandros Tsakires (1954) Megale Sexologia. Anikanotes, Steirosis kai e Syghrone Therapeia ton, 3rd edn, 1st edn 1947 (Athens: n.p.), p. 537.
- 46.
No. 1 Mykonos.
- 47.
Later on became clear that the informant had, in total, four children. The third been born in 1947, after which she had health problems, and the last child came six years after the third.
- 48.
No. 2 rural Mykonos.
- 49.
Still, the informant emphasised her lack of knowledge of methods of birth control; if she had known about them, she probably would have be keen to use them for spacing purposes.
- 50.
No. 4 Mykonos. Note that the doctor asked the husband if he wanted any more children. Thus, the recommended operation was, rather, ‘optional’ and not necessarily imperative for the health of the wife and presumably alternative therapy could be used. That the doctor asked the husband and not the wife indicates the significance and priority of the husband in decision-making, possibly to a degree that had momentous effects on the wife’s health.
- 51.
No. 6 Mykonos, referring to the early 1950s.
- 52.
No. 23 Mykonos.
- 53.
No. 21 Mykonos.
- 54.
No. 3 Hios.
- 55.
The study was associated with PIKPA, a national children’s health and welfare organisation. Essentially, the sample was drawn from mothers of children who used the PIKPA facilities, meaning that the sample was not representative of the whole female population (Vasilios Valaoras, A. Polychronopoulou and D. Trichopoulos (1965) ‘Control of Family Size in Greece (The Results of a Field Survey)’, Population Studies, 18(3), 270).
- 56.
Valaoras et al., ‘Control’, Table 9, 274.
- 57.
See, for example, No. 12 Mykonos and No. 22 Syros.
- 58.
Evaggelos Averof (1939) Symvole eis ten Ereunan tou Plythesmiakou Provlematos tes Ellados (Athens: n.p.), p. 73.
- 59.
Averof, Symvole, p. 72.
- 60.
Violetta Hionidou (2009) ‘“It Was a Bridge from Life to Death”: Hospitals during the Food Crisis, Greece 1941–1944’, Social History of Medicine, 22(2), 361–85; Violetta Hionidou (2016) ‘Popular Medicine and Empirics in Greece, 1900–1950: An Oral History Approach’, Medical History, 60(4), 492–513; Richard Blum and Eva Blum (1965) Health and Healing in Rural Greece (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press), p. 144.
- 61.
No. 11 Athens, referring to the 1960s in a town in mainland Greece.
- 62.
For Germany and the increasing power of medicine, social hygiene and social medicine see Annette F. Timm, The politics of fertility in twentieth-century Berlin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 7–9.
- 63.
Even at the turn of the twentieth century a visitor referred to the ‘hugely overstocked’ availability of physicians in the capital city (William Miller (2012) Greek Life and Country, 1st edn 1905 (Miami Florida: HardPress), p. 196).
- 64.
Hospitals offered consultations to external poor patients for a nominal fee.
- 65.
No. 4 and No. 24 Mykonos.
- 66.
See, for example, Anonymous (1939) ‘O Iatros os Daskalos ton Meteron’, Era, Meniaia Epitheoresis Praktikes Paidokomias, Eugonikes kai Noseleutikes, 2(2), 26–9.
- 67.
Gyras, Prin kai Meta ton Gamo, pp. 122–3.
- 68.
E. Georges (2008) Bodies of Knowledge: The Medicalisation of Reproduction in Greece (Nashville, TN: Vanderbuilt University Press), pp. 160–1; Blum and Blum, Health and Healing, pp. 140–65. Blum and Blum also emphasised villagers’ mistrust of physicians. Similar sentiments of mistrust were expressed by the physician-informants No. 3D, No. 5D and No. 7D, who all practised in rural Greece in the late 1960s.
- 69.
Valaoras et al., ‘Control’, 278.
- 70.
No. 5D; similar responses from No. 4D and No. 6D.
- 71.
Νο. 6D, similar comments from No. 5D.
- 72.
No. 6D.
- 73.
No. 6D graduated in 1965; similar comments by No. 5D, who graduated in 1968, No. 3D, who graduated in 1967, and No. 1D, who graduated in 1972.
- 74.
Siampos, ‘Law and Fertility in Greece’, p. 343.
- 75.
Siampos, ‘Law and Fertility in Greece’, p. 343.
- 76.
See the section on Law and Abortion earlier in this monograph. Also Metropoulos, Ygieιne, pp. 138–42; Nea Mykonos April 1954; Nea Mykonos February 1957; Georges, Bodies of Knowledge, pp. 160–4; Blum and Blum, Health and Healing, pp. 150–5. However, in the 1950s and 1960s, when a trained state-funded midwife co-existed with an untrained one in many cases the women preferred the latter (Blum and Blum, Health and Healing, p. 150). In Rhodes some women preferred the experience of giving birth with the untrained midwife rather than with the physician (Georges, Bodies of Knowledge, p. 140).
- 77.
Violetta Hionidou (1993) ‘The Demography of a Greek island, Mykonos 1859–1959: A Family Reconstitution Study’ (unpublished PhD thesis: University of Liverpool), pp. 28, 37, 38, 160–1; Otto, King of Greece (1836) ‘Law on Midwives’, Asklepios, E, appendix, 84–6; General State Archives of Athens, Mykonos archive, Lyta eggrafa, folder 20, No. 155, 30 December 1834, letter to the municipal authorities of Mykonos.
- 78.
No. 23 Mykonos. Still, informant No. 21 lamented that the midwife did not call the physician despite the fact that her delivery had lasted for two days.
- 79.
The wife of informant No. 7D indicated that abortions were performed by midwives on Hios; No. 24 had an abortion with a midwife in Athens in 1938–39; Blum and Blum, Health and Healing, pp. 150–1; in a mainland provincial town, No. 12 Athens had two abortions with two separate gynaecologists in the 1960s.
- 80.
No. 23 Mykonos, explaining that those who could afford the journey had them; the poor did not (referring to the 1930s onwards). No. 20 travelled to Athens in the 1930s to have an abortion.
- 81.
No. 7D, referring to Hios in the late 1950s and early 1960s; No. 5 Syros, referring to early-1940s Hermoupolis.
- 82.
Blum and Blum, Health and Healing, pp. 150–1, 154–5. Interestingly, both the trained and untrained midwives saw patients in Athens. The former would secretly see ‘troubled unmarried girls in Athens to give them advice’, whereas the latter declared that she would provide abortions in Athens.
- 83.
Blum and Blum, Health and Healing, pp. 74–7.
- 84.
Ioannes M. Danezes (1969) ‘E Tehnete Ektrosis os Diethnes kai Ellenikon Provlema’, Iatrike, 15(3), 200; Vasilios Valaoras, A. Polychronopoulou and D. Trichopoulos (1969) ‘Greece: Postwar Abortion Experience’, Studies in Family Planning, 1(46), 14.
- 85.
Danezes, ‘E Tehnete’, 200.
- 86.
In the 1930s abortion was available in Athens and in towns: No. 23 Mykonos became aware that abortions were taking place in the Athens hospital where she was trained as a midwife in the late 1930s; a similar point was made by No. 20 Mykonos; No. 24 Mykonos had abortions with two different physicians in Athens after 1945; No. 10 Hios referred to the physician from the nearby town of Volissos, where abortions could be done; Arnold, Childbirth, pp. 117–9, referred to 1960s rural Crete, from where women in need would travel to towns or Athens to have an abortion with a physician; Danezes, ‘E Tehnete’, 200.
- 87.
Sofia Kling (2010) ‘Reproductive health, birth control, and fertility change in Sweden, circa 1900–1940’, The History of the Family, 15(2), 161–73.
- 88.
Hera Cook (2005) The Long Sexual Revolution: English Women, Sex, and Contraception, 1800–1975 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 11–12, 29.
- 89.
Cook, The Long Sexual Revolution, pp. 37, 134–5.
- 90.
Kling, ‘Reproductive health’, 161.
- 91.
Peel, ‘Contraception’, 136.
- 92.
Peel, ‘Contraception’, 136.
- 93.
The increasing use of physicians during pregnancy and delivery in the 1910s is shown in the letters from working women collected by the Women’s Co-operative Guild (Margaret Llewelyn Davies (ed.) (1978) Maternity. Letters from Working Women collected by the Women’s Co-operative Guild (New York: W.W. Norton)). Physicians were strongly arguing for the necessity of pre-natal care for all, a novel idea at the time (Diana Palmer (1986) ‘Women, Health and Politics, 1919–1939: Professional and lay involvement in the women’s health campaign’ (unpublished PhD thesis: University of Warwick), p. 100).
- 94.
Marie C. Stopes (ed.) (1929) Mother England. A contemporary History Self Written by Those who had no Historians (London: John Bales & Sons). In the index section of the book there are three pages under the heading ‘Doctor advised …’. In most cases these are letters written to Stopes by individuals advised by their physician to avoid another pregnancy for health reasons (pp. 195–7).
- 95.
Soloway, Birth Control, p. 275.
- 96.
Kling, ‘Reproductive health’, 165.
- 97.
Writings concerned with infant mortality, the heath of the nation and maternal mortality are only some of the few that would have certainly come to the attention of some of the readers.
- 98.
Ettie A. Rout (1922) Safe Marriage: A Return to Sanity (London: William Heinemann (Medical Books) Ltd).
- 99.
An article in a popular women’s magazine opens with the declaration that ‘The young woman, in order to be a perfect hostess, needs to be in full health and to know how to sustain her health’ (Emma Drake (21 September 1950) ‘Ti prepei na xerei e nea Gynaika’, Gynaika, 1(17), 12–14).
- 100.
Sören Edvinsson and Sofia Kling (2010) ‘The practice of birth control and historical fertility change: Introduction’, The History of the Family, 15(2), 118.
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Hionidou, V. (2020). Physicians and Their Role: ‘Medicine Is a Form of Art’. In: Abortion and Contraception in Modern Greece, 1830-1967. Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41490-0_10
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