Vaginal Childbirth
When all goes according to nature's plan, vaginal childbirth is the way babies come into this world. This means the baby is delivered from the womb, through the birth canal, and into the world as a whole new person and can usually do so without an excess of trauma or medical intervention.
But every baby is different and sometimes the birth of one is a little different from the norm, too. Sometimes some medical assistance is required to help nature along. And sometimes the medical assistance is required to save the life of the mother, the child, or both.
For differing reasons, vaginal childbirth sometimes requires the assistance of medical forceps or other mechanical devices to help the baby emerge. The infant may not be situated just right for optimum delivery or there is the birth of multiple babies, which is usually predicted well in advance with today's medical technologies.
In a more extreme situation, vaginal childbirth procedures may be abandoned altogether to be replaced with a cesarean section delivery instead. In this situation, an incision is made into the mother's abdomen that allows a physician or midwife to reach into the womb and pull the baby from the mother's body, with no time in the birth canal at all.
This alternative to vaginal childbirth, the cesarean section, is often referred to as a C-section delivery and is usually reserved for deliveries where a vaginal delivery is expected to harm either the mother or the child.
Legend says the first cesarean section delivery was that of Julius Caesar, whose mother was unable to successfully deliver him via vaginal childbirth. In fact, the very word, cesarean, is said to be derived from the name Caesar. Conflicting stories say Julius Caesar's ancestors were delivered in this fashion and the word, cesarean, comes from the Latin verb, caedere, which means "to cut."
It's pretty easy to rule out the possibility of Julius Caesar being born by any way other than the less-traumatic vaginal childbirth method. Ancient Roman records indicate his mother, Aurelia, lived 45 years after his birth. At that time, a cesarean section delivery was performed only to save the life of the child when there was no hope whatsoever for the mother's survival. All caesarean deliveries were fatal to the mother in the days of ancient Rome.
Today's caesarean section deliveries are much safer but the more natural vaginal childbirth is always the preferred option. The recovery time for the mother is much shorter and her chances of delivering future children vaginally is greater when extreme surgical procedures are avoided.