# Was Caeser the First "C" Section? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 27, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-caeser-the-first-c-section/562108 "2010-11-27T22:16:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-caeser-the-first-c-section/562108/1 "2010-11-27T22:16:49Z")
It’s always bothered me that the “C” section is named for Julius Caeser. Was he the very first, and how did they know what to do back then? I assume his mother died during the process for lack of knowledge. And, how was this so well known about “C” Sections that even Shakespeare makes mention of it (i.e., ~one not mother-born) at the end of Macbeth? What’s the history of the “C” Section? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-caeser-the-first-c-section/562108/2 "2010-11-27T22:19:32Z")
There’s probably no way of knowing who had the first one; probably some obscure person who didn’t record it. Caesar may have been the first one who was famous. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-caeser-the-first-c-section/562108/3 "2010-11-27T22:33:49Z")
The trouble with the Julius Caesar “caesarian” storie is that Caesar’s mother [Aurelia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelia_Cotta) lived into old age. Making it, as I understand it, impossible that she could have ever undergone a caesarian, in those pre-sterile-operating-room days ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-caeser-the-first-c-section/562108/4 "2010-11-27T22:36:32Z")
Oh, for Pete’s sake. [Was Julius Caesar born by cesarean section?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/252/was-julius-caesar-born-by-cesarean-section) > [@](#): > > Dear Cecil: > > My dictionary tells me that the obstetrical term “cesarean” is derived from “the belief that Julius Caesar was born this way.” Who believes this, and why? I guess we now know who believes this. What we don’t know is why, since of course [it’s not true](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarean_section). > [@](#): > > Bindusara (Born c. 320 BC, ruled: 298 - c.272 BC) , the second Mauryan emperor of India after Chandragupta Maurya the Great, is said to be first child born by surgery. Her mother, wife of Chandragupta Maurya, when she was pregnant and was about to deliver, accidentally consumed poison and died. Chanakya, the chandragupta’s teacher and advisor, made up his mind that the baby should survive. He cut open the belly of the queen and took out the baby, thus saving the baby’s life. > > Pliny the Elder theorized that Julius Caesar’s name came from an ancestor who was born by Caesarean section, but the truth of this is debated (see the article on the Etymology of the name of Julius Caesar). The Ancient Roman Caesarean section was first performed to remove a baby from the womb of a mother who died during childbirth. Caesar’s mother, Aurelia, lived through childbirth and successfully gave birth to her son, ruling out the possibility that the Roman Dictator and General was born by Caesarean section. The Catalan saint Raymond Nonnatus (1204–1240), received his surname—from the Latin non natus (“not born”)—because he was born by Caesarean section. His mother died while giving birth to him.[8] > > In 1316 the future Robert II of Scotland was delivered by Caesarean section—his mother, Marjorie Bruce, died. This may have been the inspiration for Macduff in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth". (see below). > > Caesarean section usually resulted in the death of the mother; the first recorded incidence of a woman surviving a Caesarean section was in the 1580’s, in Siegershausen, Switzerland: Jakob Nufer, a pig gelder, is supposed to have performed the operation on his wife after a prolonged labour[9].