For many centuries, labor was the last great mystery to mark the process of a woman's gestation. From the beginning of the pregnancy, both the mother-to-be and her family hoped that the labor could go as smoothly as possible. Otherwise, the birth of the child could become a painful experience capable of offering several risks both for the pregnant woman and for the new life that was to come.
For a long time, the birth situation was resolved in a homemade way with the performance of the women of the house assisted by a midwife more experienced. In the most complicated cases, the lack of techniques, devices and medicines turned birth into a terrible risk factor for the baby and the mother. Thus, it took many decades for medical studies to develop safe alternatives to difficult-to-perform births.
In the late 16th century, Peter Chamberlen invented the first forceps used in the delivery of the newborn. In the first procedures, the contraption was attached to the child's head and pulled until it was completely removed from the mother. When removing a stillbirth , some doctors used craniotomy , a terrible medical procedure in which the fetal skull was perforated until extraction was possible.
In the 20th century, childbirth underwent a new revolution when cesarean section techniques advanced significantly. The application of anesthesia , the new sterilization procedures and the use of the low incision made it possible for deliveries that were previously considered fatal to be performed with great success. However, in the midst of so many benefits, there are historical and cultural misunderstandings when we refer to this form of birth.
The historical error consists in believing that the cesarean section was created thanks to the famous Roman dictator Julius Caesar, who would have been born that way . In Ancient Rome , the incision in the woman's belly only happened when she had already died or when neither of them resisted the complications of normal delivery. In the case of Julius Caesar, different records point out that his mother, Aurelia, still lived after giving birth to her illustrious son. So it was impossible that she had a cesarean section .
From a cultural point of view, we see that the popularization of cesarean section in the last forty years has marginalized other safer and healthier forms of delivery. The fear of feeling pain or not being able to resist labor has led many women and doctors to transform this natural process into a simple technical procedure. In recent years, research indicates that opting for normal birth reduces the risk of a number of complications and has a positive psychological impact on both mother and child.
With this, we can see that the process of modernization of medical procedures does not necessarily imply the intense control of the natural physiological processes that involve such a situation. It is not by chance that we see that several public health programs today encourage the participation of traditional midwives who, for centuries, played a fundamental role in helping many lives to gain the world. Finally, the cesarean section can no longer be seen as an irrefutable advance in medicine.