Material Type

Artifact

Other Name

INTRAUTERINE DEVICE

Date Range From

1974

Date Range To

1975

Materials

PLASTIC, COPPER

No. Pieces

1

Height

0.2

Length

5.3

Width

3.2

Description

“T”-SHAPED WHITE PLASTIC WITH COPPER WIRE COIL ON VERTICAL STEM OF “T” AND WHITE STRING CONNECTED TO THE BASE.

Subjects

MEDICAL & DENTAL T&E

Historical Association

HEALTH SERVICES

PERSONAL CARE

History

ON JANUARY 8, 2025, COLLECTIONS ASSISTANT TESS MCNAUGHTON INTERVIEWED PAULINE HOSKIN ON HER DONATION OF TWO INTRAUTERINE DEVICES (IUD) TO THE MUSEUM. HOSKIN WORKED AS A PUBLIC HEALTH NURSE IN TORONTO (1967-1971) BEFORE MOVING WITH HER HUSBAND TO LETHBRIDGE IN 1973 WHERE SHE BECAME THE DIRECTOR OF THE ‘LETHBRIDGE BIRTH CONTROL AND INFORMATION CENTRE’. IN ADDITION TO THE INTERVIEW ABOVE, HOSKIN WAS INTERVIEWED BY KARISSA PATTON ON DECEMBER 20, 2017, FOR A PROJECT CALLED “THE HISTORY OF ACTIVISM AND ALTERNATIVE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH MODELS IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA, 1968-1979.” ON THE COPPER ‘T’ IUD’S APPLICATION BY HER GYNECOLOGIST DR. STITT IN LETHBRIDGE IN 1974, HOSKIN STATED: “I WANTED THE HIGHEST PROTECTION. … RIGHT AWAY THEY STRAIGHTEN OUT THE ENDS OF THE ‘T’ SO IT’S JUST LIKE A LONG CAPITAL ‘T’, AND PUT IT INTO A TUBE , AND INSERT IT. AND IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THAT THE COPPER WAS AN ADDED BENEFIT OF PREVENTING PREGNANCY. … THERE ARE ALSO VARIOUS DIFFERENT COPPER ‘T’S’, LIKE THERE’S SOME WHERE THE COPPER IS WRAPPED AROUND THE CROSS BAR OF THE ‘T’. THIS ONE ONLY HAS COPPER ON THE LONG PART OF THE ‘T’.” HOSKIN HAD USED BIRTH CONTROL PILLS, STARTING IN 1967, UNTIL 1971 WHEN THE COUPLE HAD THEIR SON WHO WAS BORN IN 1972. FOLLOWING THE BIRTH HOSKIN HAD A DALKON SHIELD IUD INSERTED (1972) WHICH WAS REMOVED IN 1974. THAT SAME YEAR SHE HAD THE COPPER ‘T’ INSERTED. IT WAS REMOVED IN 1975 AS THE COUPLE MOVED TO FORT MACLEOD AND DECIDED TO TRY FOR A SECOND CHILD. THEIR DAUGHTER WAS BORN IN MAY 1976. FOLLOWING THE BIRTH HOSKIN HAD ANOTHER COPPER ‘T’ IUD INSERTED WHICH WAS REMOVED IN 1978 AFTER HER HUSBAND HAD A VASECTOMY. WHEN ASKED IF SHE EXPERIENCED SIDE EFFECTS HOSKIN STATED SHE DID NOT EXPERIENCE ANY WITH EITHER THE DALKON SHIELD OR THE COPPER ‘T’ IUDS. HOSKIN ALSO DISCUSSED THE INSERTION AND REMOVAL OF THE COPPER ‘T’ STATING “[IT] WAS UNCOMFORTABLE. NOT PAIN, IT WAS VERY QUICK AND OVER WITH,” AND “[THERE WAS PAIN] JUST ON THE INSERTION- OR TAKING IT OUT. [BUT] NO, IT WASN’T SEVERE.” WHEN ASKED ABOUT HER LATER DECISION TO USE AN IUD AS OPPOSED TO ORAL BIRTH CONTROL HOSKIN REFLECTED: “I WAS ALWAYS AFRAID OF FORGETTING [TO TAKE THE PILL], … AND HAVING READ ABOUT [IUDS], HOW SAFE THEY WERE AND EFFECTIVE THEY WERE, AND I WOULDN’T HAVE TO TAKE A DRUG. I WOULDN’T HAVE TO REMEMBER, BUT I ALSO WOULDN’T HAVE THIS OTHER NECESSITY OF TAKING SOMETHING DIFFERENT IN MY BODY,” ADDING, AS IUDS BECAME MORE POPULAR, “THEY WERE CHEERED BECAUSE, EVEN AT THAT POINT, THERE WAS SOME CONCERN ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL PILLS, AND THE EFFECT ON WOMEN - THEIR CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM. I REALLY HAVE DIFFICULTY REMEMBERING THAT. I THINK THAT IT MAY HAVE BEEN CLOTS, FROM THE BIRTH CONTROL PILLS.” HOSKIN ALSO MENTIONED THAT SHE AND HER HUSBAND HAD CONCERNS ABOUT THE EFFECT THE IUD WOULD HAVE ON THEIR INTERCOURSE STATING, “I THINK BOTH OF US WERE CONCERNED AT FIRST ABOUT WHETHER EITHER OF US WOULD FEEL THIS AT INTERCOURSE, AND … THAT WAS SOMETHING THAT I ASKED THE DOCTOR ABOUT, AND WE HAD NO AWARENESS OF IT DURING ANY… SO IT WASN’T AN ISSUE. THAT WAS A RELIEF.” HOSKIN STATED THAT SHE DID NOT HAVE MUCH OF A CHOICE AS TO WHICH KIND OF IUD TO USE: “THERE WERE JUST DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE DOCTORS SAYING, ‘THIS IS WHAT WE RECOMMEND.’ THERE WASN’T ANY MORE THAN THAT - AND I FELT LIKE, OKAY, HE WAS A GOOD DOCTOR DURING THE PREGNANCY, AND GOOD, GREAT DURING THE DELIVERY.” HOSKIN RECALLED SHE WAS UNABLE TO OPENLY DISCUSS IUDS AT THE TIME, EXCEPT IN HER CAPACITY AS A NURSE STATING, “PEOPLE NEVER TALKED OPENLY ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL AT ALL, LIKE FRIENDS, OR SEXUALITY WASN’T REALLY TALKED ABOUT. … [MY HUSBAND] DEREK LEFT IT UP TO ME, BECAUSE … BEING A REGISTERED NURSE, I WAS THE ONE THAT WAS MAKING THE DECISION AT THAT TIME ABOUT WHAT BIRTH CONTROL WE WOULD USE. … I DON’T THINK I EVER REALLY TALKED ABOUT IT OTHER THAN THROUGH MY WORK. … IN TORONTO, WHERE I WORKED AS A PUBLIC HEALTH NURSE… WE WENT TO VISIT MOMS WITH NEW BABIES. WE ALSO HAD ‘WELL-BABY’ CLINICS, WHERE THE DOCTORS GAVE THE VACCINE. IN ONTARIO, AT THAT TIME, NURSES DID NOT [GIVE THE VACCINE]. THEY SET IT UP, AND THEY MORE OR LESS TALKED TO THE PARENTS, (IT’S USUALLY THE MOTHERS), ABOUT WHAT VACCINES THEY WOULD GET. SO [THE IUD] WOULD COME UP, YOU KNOW, AFTER THE NEW BABY VISITS, AND THEN AT THE WELL-BABY CLINICS, BUT IT WAS MOSTLY ABOUT INFANTS AND HEALTH.” ON HER TIME AS THE DIRECTOR OF THE LETHBRIDGE BIRTH CONTROL AND INFORMATION CENTRE AND ITS GOALS, HOSKIN SAID, “IT WAS ALL ABOUT EDUCATION. EDUCATION WAS A BIG DEAL. THAT'S WHAT I FELT WAS THE BIRTH CONTROL CENTRE WAS ALL ABOUT. OUR NAME WAS ‘INFORMATION’…[AND] AT THE CENTRE WE WANTED TO TRY AND GET OUT THE PROS AND CONS, BASIC INFORMATION, [TO] MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION…MY IMPRESSION WAS THAT EVERYBODY WAS BEING SELF-TAUGHT OR THROUGH THEIR PEER GROUPS. THEY WERE GETTING ALL KINDS OF INFORMATION, AND MISINFORMATION, MISINFORMATION ABOUT WHAT WAS SAFE, WHAT WAS EFFECTIVE, WHAT WERE THE PROS AND CONS?...THERE WAS A REAL LACK IN THE COMMUNITY, A REAL LACK AND A DESIRE FOR INFORMATION.” ON HER ROLE, HOSKIN ADDED, “WAS TO GIVE OUT INFORMATION, TO ANSWER QUESTIONS. WE HAD PAMPHLETS; WE HAD PICTURES; WE ALSO HAD SAMPLES. WE WOULD HAVE THE EMPTY CONTAINER OF THE BIRTH CONTROL PILLS, … [WHICH] AT THAT TIME, WERE THE TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS, OR THE TWENTY-ONE DAYS, OR THE DIFFERENT IUDS. IT WAS TRYING TO GIVE THEM AS MUCH INFORMATION AS WE [WERE] ALWAYS SAYING, 'YOU CAN PHONE; YOU CAN COME BACK; BECAUSE IT WAS ALWAYS OPEN HOUSE, ALWAYS OPEN IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS.’” ON HER OPENNESS ON HER OWN EXPERIENCE USING AN IUD, HOSKIN SHARED: “I DON’T REMEMBER WHETHER I WAS ASKED OR NOT. A LOT OF THE PEOPLE COMING IN DID NOT HAVE CHILDREN, OR THEY WERE CONCERNED ABOUT PREVENTING PREGNANCY - PREVENTING THE FIRST PREGNANCY. THIS, AT THAT TIME, WAS POPULAR IF YOU HAD HAD A CHILD. THERE WAS A GENERAL FEELING THAT AN IUD WOULD BE EXPELLED, BECAUSE OF IT BEING A FOREIGN OBJECT, AND THE UTERUS BEING SMALLER, AND ALL THAT.” HOSKIN ALSO DISCUSSED HER HUSBAND’S VASECTOMY STATING “I TALKED TO DEREK ABOUT THIS WHEN OUR DAUGHTER WAS TWO- I HAD BEEN RESPONSIBLE FROM ’67 TO [1978] ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL, AND I TALKED TO HIM ABOUT VASECTOMIES SO HE TALKED TO THE DOCTOR AND THE DOCTOR ACTUALLY HAD ME COME IN TOO.. THIS WAS AT THAT TIME, [THE DOCTOR] WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT THE WOMAN WAS [AWARE]… SO HE AGREED TO HAVE A VASECTOMY, AND SO THERE WAS A REQUIRED TIME AFTER THE VASECTOMY THAT THERE HAD TO BE TESTING OF THE SPERM AFTER THAT TIME, AND THEN ONCE IT WAS CONSIDERED SAFE, I HAD THE [SECOND COPPER ‘T’] IUD REMOVED IN 1978.” HOSKIN WAS THEN ASKED IF THERE WAS ANY STIGMA AROUND VASECTOMIES AT THE TIME TO WHICH SHE REPLIED, “I THINK THERE WAS. IT WASN’T TALKED ABOUT MUCH… IT WAS CONSIDERED A PERSONAL DECISION AND ALL, BETWEEN COUPLES. BECAUSE I WAS NEVER INTERVIEWED, YOU KNOW, WHEN I WENT TO GO ON BIRTH CONTROL OR HAVE AN IUD THEY NEVER SAID… HAVE YOUR HUSBAND COME IN. BUT THIS VASECTOMY… HAVING ME COME AND SAY, ‘YES, I’M IN AGREEMENT WITH THAT.’ I THINK THERE WAS A CERTAIN FEAR.” FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON HOSKIN’S IUD EXPERIENCE AND HER TIME WITH “LETHBRIDGE BIRTH CONTROL AND INFORMATION CENTRE,” INCLUDING FULL TRANSCRIPTS AND THE TOPICS ON VENEREAL DISEASES, SEXUAL HEALTH, AND BIRTH CONTROL, PLEASE SEE THE DONATION’S PERMANENT FILE.

Catalogue Number

P20250002001

Acquisition Date

2025-01

Collection

Museum

Less detail