Final answer:
The attitudes of poor moms and dads towards birth control are shaped by factors like poverty, access to healthcare, societal issues, and historical experiences with reproductive rights, including concerns about covert population control. Birth control methods vary in effectiveness, which is typically evaluated in terms of their failure rate, and are generally beneficial for family health.
Step-by-step explanation:
The approach of most of the poor moms in Promises to Keep and fathers in Doing the Best I Can towards birth control reflects a complex interplay of personal, societal, and economic factors. The attitudes of these individuals towards using birth control can be explained by several key factors, including poverty, violence, healthcare access, and broader social concerns such as climate change.
In the context of these communities, types of birth control methods such as barrier methods, hormonal methods, intrauterine devices (IUDs), behavioral methods, and sterilization are understood and chosen based on their effectiveness and personal circumstances. The effectiveness of these methods is typically measured by their failure rate, with higher failure rates for typical use compared to perfect use. For example, with perfect use, a birth control method might have a failure rate of one percent, while with typical use, the failure rate could be significantly higher.
Historically, innovations in birth control, such as more reliable condoms and informative pamphlets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, empowered working-class parents to limit family size. Figures like Margaret Sanger in the United States campaigned for birth control access, particularly among working-class women who suffered from the health effects of frequent pregnancies. However, there were also concerns about birth control being used as a form of population control against marginalized groups, as evidenced by the experiences of African American communities described in Harriet Johnson's book Medical Apartheid.
All birth control methods carry some health risks but are generally safer than the risks associated with pregnancy. Despite potential adverse effects, the use of contraception is beneficial for spacing children, benefiting both the children's health and development and the mother's health.