A team of obstetricians perform a Caesarean section in a modern hospital. The image shows the very first moment the mother glimpses her new-born child. A Caesarean section (or Cesarean section in American English), also known as C-section or Caesar, is a surgical procedure in which incisions are made through a mother's abdomen (laparotomy) and uterus (hysterotomy) to deliver one or more babies. It is usually performed when a vaginal delivery would put the baby's or mother's life or health at risk, although in recent times it has been also performed upon request for childbirths that could otherwise have been natural. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the rate of Caesarean sections should not exceed 15% in any country. In 2006, the last year with available data, the rate of U.S. births by C-section was 31.1%, the highest it has ever been.

Etymology

There are three theories about the origin of the name:

1. 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 the case that 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 an ancestor of Caesar was delivered in this manner.
3. An alternative etymology suggests that the procedure's name derives from the Latin verb caedere (supine stem caesum), "to cut," in which case the term "Caesarean section" is redundant. 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. (A corollary suggesting that Julius Caesar himself derived his name from the operation is refuted by the fact that the cognomen "Caesar" had been used in the Julii family for centuries before his 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.)

The link with the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, or with Roman Emperors generally, exists in other languages as well. For example, the modern German, Danish, and Dutch terms are respectively Kaiserschnitt, kejsersnit, and keizersnede (literally: "Emperor's section"). The German term has also been imported into Japanese (帝王切開) and Korean (제왕 절개), both literally meaning "emperor incision." The South Slavic term is carski rez, which literally means caesarean cut. The Russian term kesarevo secheniye (кесарево сечение) literally means Ceasar's section. The Arabic term (القيصرية) also means pertaining to Caesar or literally Caesarean. In Brazil it is usually called cesárea or cesareana, meaning from (or related to) Caesar. The expression in Brazilian Portuguese usually does not include other words to designate the section. Usual uses of the term are I'm going to have a cesárea next week or I was delivered by cesareana.