The history behind Caesarean delivery

The history behind Caesarean delivery

There are many procedures that are named after people because they have first started using them or they have first developed them. But the procedure of caesarean delivery does not fall under that category.

So, why is it called a cesarean pregnancy then? Where the name comes from? Well, as the most common theory goes; this caesarean section is mainly named after Julius Caesar because many historians would say that the king was born in this same process. Though it might be a very string and believable thing but there are high chances that this story has no fact in it. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder, first wrote about the connection between the caesarean section and Julius Caesar. This was also published in the Byzantine Encyclopaedia around 10th century. As the writing goes, it says that Julius Caesar’s mother’s name was Aurelia who died in her ninth month of pregnancy and then she was cut open so that the baby can be brought out. But there is a confusion to this story because according to many historical facts, Aurelia lived well till the adulthood of Caesar.

In ancient Rome, much before Julius was born, there was a law prevailed  and it said that if a woman dies during the time of child birth then the baby was always removed from the mother’s body so that it can have a separate burial. Sometimes it was also used as the last resort to try to save the baby’s life even the mother had died.

So, how come the name of the Caesar got attached to this particular kind of baby delivery process? Well, there is a possibility that the ancestor of Caesar was born in this manner and so the entire family’s name was associated with that birth.

Again, there is another chance that Caesar and his family had nothing to do with this birth procedure. In Latin, there is a word called ‘caedare’ and it means to cut. The past participle of this word is caesus and thus this can lead to the term ‘Caesar delivery’ where the uterus is cut to take out the baby.

The caesarean section of birth has become a very common procedure because of the use of antibiotics and anaesthesia. Here the baby us removed surgically from the mother and previously it was only done when the mother died during the time of delivery as this was the last resort to save the child.

There are also many instances where the mother had lived even after the caesarean section was done and this procedure has been followed since ages in ancient India, Greece, Egypt and Rome medical teams and science studies.

So, how did Caesarean section get their names can still be a matter of debate by the purpose of taking this procedure into account is very clear. This is only done when there is a difficulty to save the baby is a normal delivery process.= and in order to keep both the mother and child safe.

Share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *