where did the word cesarean section come from
Caesarean section
The Roman Lex Regia ( royal law ) , later the Lex Caesarea ( imperial law ) , of Numa Pompilius ( 715 -- 673 BC ) , required the child of a mother dead in childbirth to be cut from her womb . There was a cultural taboo that mothers not be buried pregnant , that may have reflected a way of saving some fetuses . Roman practice requiring a living mother to be in her tenth month of pregnancy before resorting to the procedure , reflecting the knowledge that she could not survive the delivery . Speculation that the Roman dictator Julius Caesar was born by the method now known as C - section is apparently false . Although Caesarean sections were performed in Roman times , no classical source records a mother surviving such a delivery . As late as the 12th century , scholar and physician Maimonides expresses doubt over the possibility of a woman 's surviving this procedure and again falling pregnant . The term has also been explained as deriving from the verb caedere , `` to cut '' , with children delivered this way referred to as caesones . Pliny the Elder refers to a certain Julius Caesar ( an ancestor of the famous Roman statesman ) as ab utero caeso , `` cut from the womb '' giving this as an explanation for the cognomen `` Caesar '' which was then carried by his descendants . Nonetheless , even if the etymological hypothesis linking the caesarean section to Julius Caesar is a false etymology , it has been widely believed . For example , the Oxford English Dictionary defines Caesarean birth as `` the delivery of a child by cutting through the walls of the abdomen when delivery can not take place in the natural way , as was done in the case of Julius Caesar '' . Merriam - Webster 's Collegiate Dictionary ( 11th edition ) leaves room for etymological uncertainty with the phrase , `` from the legendary association of such a delivery with the Roman cognomen Caesar '' 
The Roman Lex Regia ( royal law ) , later the Lex Caesarea ( imperial law ) , of Numa Pompilius ( 715 -- 673 BC ) , required the child of a mother dead in childbirth to be cut from her womb . There was a cultural taboo that mothers not be buried pregnant , that may have reflected a way of saving some fetuses . Roman practice requiring a living mother to be in her tenth month of pregnancy before resorting to the procedure , reflecting the knowledge that she could not survive the delivery . Speculation that the Roman dictator Julius Caesar was born by the method now known as C - section is apparently false . Although Caesarean sections were performed in Roman times , no classical source records a mother surviving such a delivery . As late as the 12th century , scholar and physician Maimonides expresses doubt over the possibility of a woman 's surviving this procedure and again falling pregnant . The term has also been explained as deriving from the verb caedere , `` to cut '' , with children delivered this way referred to as caesones . Pliny the Elder refers to a certain Julius Caesar ( an ancestor of the famous Roman statesman ) as ab utero caeso , `` cut from the womb '' giving this as an explanation for the cognomen `` Caesar '' which was then carried by his descendants . Nonetheless , even if the etymological hypothesis linking the caesarean section to Julius Caesar is a false etymology , it has been widely believed . For example , the Oxford English Dictionary defines Caesarean birth as `` the delivery of a child by cutting through the walls of the abdomen when delivery can not take place in the natural way , as was done in the case of Julius Caesar '' . Merriam - Webster 's Collegiate Dictionary ( 11th edition ) leaves room for etymological uncertainty with the phrase , `` from the legendary association of such a delivery with the Roman cognomen Caesar ''
Speculation that the Roman dictator Julius Caesar was born by the method now known as C - section is apparently false. The term has also been explained as deriving from the verb caedere, ``to cut'', with children delivered this way referred to as caesones.
Speculation that the Roman dictator Julius Caesar was born by the method now known as C - section is apparently false . The term has also been explained as deriving from the verb caedere , `` to cut '' , with children delivered this way referred to as caesones .
The term, Caesarean section, has also been explained as deriving from the verb caedere , `` to cut '' , with children delivered this way referred to as caesones . Pliny the Elder refers to a certain Julius Caesar ( an ancestor of the famous Roman statesman ) as ab utero caeso , `` cut from the womb '' giving this as an explanation for the cognomen `` Caesar '' which was then carried by his descendants .
The term has also been explained as deriving from the verb caedere , `` to cut '' , with children delivered this way referred to as caesones . Pliny the Elder refers to a certain Julius Caesar ( an ancestor of the famous Roman statesman ) as ab utero caeso , `` cut from the womb '' giving this as an explanation for the cognomen `` Caesar '' which was then carried by his descendants .