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A caesarean section (cesarean section AE), or c-section, is a form of childbirth in which a surgical incision is made through a mother's abdomen (laparotomy) and uterus (hysterotomy) to deliver one or more babies. It is usually performed when a vaginal delivery would lead to medical complications, although it is increasingly common for otherwise normal births as well.
Etymology
There are several elements which contribute to a linguistic explanation of the word caesarean.
- The term may be simply derived from the Latin verb caedere (supine stem caesum), "to cut." The term caesarean section then would be a tautology.
- The caesarean is possibly named after Roman military and political leader Julius Caesar who allegedly was so delivered. Historically, this is unlikely as his mother was alive after he reached adulthood (extremely implausible if such a procedure was performed with the technology of the day [citation needed]), but the legend is at least as old as the 2nd century AD.
- Roman law prescribed that the procedure was to be performed at the end of a pregnancy on a dying woman in order to save the life of the baby. This was called the lex caesarea. Thus the Roman law may be the origin of the term.
Most likely the term is the product of a combination of these. The beginning of the story is certainly the verb caedo: the phrase a matre caesus ("cut out of his mother") was used in Roman times to describe the operation. The real etymology of the name Caesar (a much older family name) is completely unrelated, but a very early folk etymology invented the story of Julius Caesar's birth by section in order to suggest that his name is derived from this verb.
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The title of the Roman law must be influenced by this legend, since the form caesareus cannot be derived directly from caesus without some interference of Caesar. The form of the modern English word caesarean may come either from the law or from the name Caesar, but the modern German Kaiserschnitt (literally: "Emperor's section") obviously comes directly from the legend of Julius Caesar's birth.
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