Article ID: CBB676193029

‘Nonnatus dictus quod caeso defunctae matris utero prodiit’. Postmortem Caesarean Section in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (2019)

unapi

Historians call sectio in mortua the act of opening the abdomen of a woman who has died during pregnancy or in childbirth in order to extract a baby. According to recent studies, the sectio is considered to be a routine practice carried out by male surgeons from the end of the Middle Ages, particularly in Italy, where the evidence of the sectio being performed by a midwife is scanty. But was it really such a popular operation at the time, and can the figure of the midwife be seen as secondary? It is also known that the operation was qualified through aspects which went beyond the surgical sphere, such as religion, myth, and especially law. How did these fields interact? This article highlights the complexity of sectio through the interpretation of different sources spanning from the late Middle Ages to the Early Modern period.

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Authors & Contributors
Lurie, Samuel
Oren-Magidor, Daphna
Robilliard, Gabrielle
Roth, Cassia
Martín-Alcaide, Rosario
Astbury, Leah
Concepts
Obstetrics and pregnancy
Childbirth
Midwifery
Medicine
Medicine and religion
Medicine and gender
Time Periods
Medieval
Early modern
20th century
Modern
Renaissance
16th century
Places
England
Europe
Germany
Saxony
Uganda
Puerto Rico
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