Cesarean sectionIn 1794, Elizabeth Hog Bennett became the first woman in the U.S. to successfully give birth to a child by a Cesarean section. Her husband, Dr. Jessee Bennett of Edom, Va., performed the operation, though he had no anesthetic to give her. Another local doctor who he asked for assistance declined, citing excessive risk. In his place, he enlisted the help of two field hands to hold the mother on a wooden table. Whereas this operation was the first of its kind in the U.S., the history of the Cesarean operation has been traced as far back as ancient Chinese etchings that depict the procedure on apparently living women. Roman law under Julius Caesar decreed that all women who were dead or dying must be cut open to save the child. |
