The Evolution of the C-Section.

The caesarean section, or C-section, has been performed since before recorded history. We probably don't even know the first people to use it. It certainly goes back to at least ancient times. Pliny the Elder theorized that Julius Caesar's name came from the fact an ancestor was born this way. Some people still think Julius Caesar himself was born that way. But we know this couldn't be true. Because Caesar's mother Aurelia lived long enough to hear of her son's invasion of Britain. And women back then never survived due to blood loss and infection.

The first successful procedure (where the mother survived) is said to be performed in the 1580's in Siegersausen, Switzerland by Jacob Nufer, a pig gelder. Now the procedure is routine. But even by the middle of the nineteenth century, the mother only had a 25 percent chance of surviving.

With modern sterilization techniques, the procedure has become commonplace. Queen Victoria was one of the first member of a royal family to have it, during the birth of Prince Leopoldo in 1853, her eighth child and youngest son. They also used chloroform during his birth as an anesthetic to ease the pain.