Medical history of Malta : the first caesarian section

Abstract

The first reference to birth by uterine operation can be traced as far back to the Greeks. According to Greek legend, the birth of Aesculapius took place by uterine operation. Caron is, Aesculapius' mother had betrayed her husband Apollo who in turn avenged himself by burning her on the funeral pyre after removing the premature infant from her womb. Other writers however, assert that Aesculapius was born before his mother died of puerperal sepsis and thus could not have been born by the now called Caeserean Section as the Greeks perfonned this operation only on dead mothers.