Caesarean birth. Woodcut illustration depicting a woman during a caesarean birth. The woman is depicted with the incision made but with the baby still in the womb. At upper right is a diagram of a baby still in the womb, at lower left the baby after delivery. In ancient times, delivery by caesarean section was almost inevitably fatal for the mother, the first recorded birth in which the mother also survived was in 1580. This woodcut comes from Foetus vivi ex matre viva by Francois Rousset printed in Basle in 1581.