by Maggie Downs posted in Life

Today we are familiar with cesarean sections as surgical procedures performed to birth children. About 32 percent of all babies born in the U.S. enter the world via c-section, and the reasons why are varied and wide-ranging.
But that wasn?t always the case.
Hundreds of years ago, some laws required the baby be cut from the womb of a deceased mother before she could be buried. This was routine religious practice, performed to save the babies? souls.
For instance, in 1804, the king of Spain issued a statement that said no pregnant woman should be buried without first having a c-section. This piece by Erin Blakemore details why, exploring the forgotten practice of postmortem cesarian sections, which has its origins in the Catholic church. ?By accessing the fetus before burying the mother, the logic went, the fetus could be baptized and receive salvation within the Roman Catholic Church, and the baby would not be buried inside its mother,? Blakemore writes.

 
Her piece goes own to show how religion, law, and medicine were often intertwined, with clergy firmly embedded in the sciences.
?The clergy was expected to care for women during pregnancy, and a postmortem c-section was seen as part of that care,? she writes.
As a (thankfully living) recipient of a c-section, I wanted to learn more about the practice.
I found this fascinating analysis of a fifteenth century document ? ?Sadly and With a Bitter Heart: What Caesarian Section Meant in...