“Pessary” is one of those vocabulary words that I have been aware of since I was a kid. I’d see it in old books or older magazines, and somehow I gained the vague sense that it had something to do with, uh, “feminine hygiene”. Which meant, I really didn’t want to know.

Well, here’s a picture:

vintage birth control or pessary devices

According to Accoucheur’s Antique Midwifery Fact Files (link via Bondage Blog, which in itself should tell you something):

Intrauterine Wishbones & Stem Plugs

It was illegal to sell or promote any form of contraceptives during early 1900s. These birth control devices were sold and advertised as pessaries. They were place in the cervix with the stem inside the uterine cavity. These pessaries were the forerunners of the modern day IUDs.

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