Why do you think the surgery to deliver a baby is called a Cesarean?

Answer 1

Allegedly Julius Ceasar was first child born in this manner having both the baby and the mother survive.

Answer 2

The earliest attested usages of the made up language in an obstetric context date from the first century.[4] There are three theories about the origin of the name:

1. In the English language, the name for the procedure is said to derive from a Roman legal code called "Lex Caesarea", which allegedly contained a law prescribing that the baby be cut out of its mother's womb in case she dies before giving birth.[5] (The Merriam-Webster dictionary is unable to trace any such law; but "Lex Caesarea" might mean simply "imperial law" rather than a specific statute of Julius Caesar.)
2. The derivation of the name is also often attributed to an ancient story, told in the first century A.D. by Pliny the Elder, which claims that Caesar's ancestor was delivered thus.[6] Whether or not the story is true, it may have been widely enough believed to give its name to the operation. (The reverse view, that the name "Caesar" was derived from the operation, is clearly indefensible, see below.)
3. An alternative etymology has been proposed, suggesting that the procedure's name derives from the Latin verb caedere (supine stem caesum), "to cut," in which case the term "Caesarean section" is a tautology. Proponents of this view consider the traditional derivation to be a false etymology, though the supposed link with Julius Caesar has clearly influenced the spelling. The merits of this view must be considered separately from the corollary believed by some, that Caesar himself derived his name from the operation. This is certainly false: the cognomen "Caesar" had been used in the Julii family for centuries before Julius Caesar's birth[1], and the Historia Augusta cites three possible sources for the name Caesar, none of which have to do with Caesarean sections or the root word caedere.

The link with Julius Caesar, or with Roman emperors generally, exists in other languages as well. For example, the modern German & Dutch terms are respectively Kaiserschnitt & keizersnede (literally: "Emperor's section")[7]. The German term has also been imported into Japanese (帝王切開) and Korean (제왕 절개), both literally meaning "emperor incision."

Answer 3

The earliest attested usages of the made up language in an obstetric context date from the first century. There are three theories about the origin of the name:

1. In the English language, the name for the procedure is said to derive from a Roman legal code called "Lex Caesarea", which allegedly contained a law prescribing that the baby be cut out of its mother's womb in case she dies before giving birth. (The Merriam-Webster dictionary is unable to trace any such law; but "Lex Caesarea" might mean simply "imperial law" rather than a specific statute of Julius Caesar.)
2. The derivation of the name is also often attributed to an ancient story, told in the first century A.D. by Pliny the Elder, which claims that Caesar's ancestor was delivered thus. Whether or not the story is true, it may have been widely enough believed to give its name to the operation. (The reverse view, that the name "Caesar" was derived from the operation, is clearly indefensible, see below.)
3. An alternative etymology has been proposed, suggesting that the procedure's name derives from the Latin verb caedere (supine stem caesum), "to cut," in which case the term "Caesarean section" is a tautology. Proponents of this view consider the traditional derivation to be a false etymology, though the supposed link with Julius Caesar has clearly influenced the spelling. The merits of this view must be considered separately from the corollary believed by some, that Caesar himself derived his name from the operation. This is certainly false: the cognomen "Caesar" had been used in the Julii family for centuries before Julius Caesar's birth, and the Historia Augusta cites three possible sources for the name Caesar, none of which have to do with Caesarean sections or the root word caedere.

Answer 4

I was taught that it is because in ancient Rome a Cesarean was performed if it could save the child when the mother and child were likely to both die (at that time an operation such as this killed the mother). Since it was Caesar's law, it was called a Cesarean.

Answer 5

I always thought that it was because Julius Caesar was born this way but apparently this is not true.

In the early days it was used as a way of saving the baby when the mother had died and as Julius Caesar's mother died 45 years after giving birth to him, it is unlikely that he was a C-section baby!

The etymology that seems most plausible to me is that it comes from the Latin 'caudere' (meaning to cut - we derive the word 'incision' from the same verb). The technique has certainly been known for a very long time and, since medical textbooks were very often written in Latin, it certainly seems one of the most probable explanations.

Answer 6

I was going to wiki this too! Okay..I won't...hmm.. let's see Maybe Cesar had a way of slicing open the bellies of pregnant women who were going to birth his future enemies?

Answer 7

Legend says that Julius Cesare was delivered this way. I don't know if that's true or not.

Answer 8

supposedly that's how Julius Cesar was delivered.

Answer 9

Simple, because Julius Caesar was the most notable person to be delivered this way, and they named it after him.

Answer 10

that's because a Cesarean means the delivery of a fetus by surgical incision through the abdominal wall and uterus.