New Delhi: For decades, caesarean births have been performed around the wold despite its pros and cons.
But, many of us may not be knowing some basic things like, when and where the first surgical birth took place and whether or not the individuals – mother and the baby – survived.
As per a new research, the first birth by caesarean section where both the mother and child survived may have taken place in 1337 in Prague.
On February 25 in 1337, Beatrice of Bourbon, the second wife and second cousin of John the Blind, King of Bohemia and Count of Luxembourg, gave birth to her only child, Duke Wenceslaus I.
According to archival documents found by the researchers, Beatrice, a teenage queen consort, had a difficult labour.
"Beatrice most likely passed out during delivery, and was believed dead," said Antonin Parizek of Charles University in Czech Republic.
"The surgeons opened her only to save and baptise the child. The pain from the operation then likely led to her awakening," said Parizek.
At that point, shock may have saved her life by keeping her from bleeding excessively, he said.
During the 14th century, Prague was a centre of European learning and the royal court of Bohemia would have employed the leading doctors of the time, researchers said.
Beatrice recovered from the surgery and lived 46 more years.
In a Flemish rhyming chronicle likely written by a diplomat at court, the author wrote 'the duke was taken from his mother's body and the wound healed,'" Parizek told 'The New York Times'.
Other archival sources described Beatrice "being opened up without dying," Parizek said.
"The event must have been truly uncommon, as information on the medical state of royals was not made public in those times," he added.
Prior to this study, the earliest documented case was in Switzerland in 1500.
A number of studies have indicated that C-sections may not exactly be benign and that babies born by surgical births have a higher risk of being obese or suffering from chronic illnesses later in life.
(With PTI inputs)
