Jane Eliot Sewell presented “Cesarean Section--A Brief History” in 1993 as a brochure in the National Library of Medicine’s exhibit on the history of cesarean sections, hereafter c-sections, in Bethesda, Maryland. A c-section is a surgical procedure that doctors use to deliver a fetus through an incision in a pregnant person’s abdomen. The National Library of Medicine’s exhibit included a collection of artwork and photographs that coincide with the historical account of the procedure, and the brochure presents that information in print form. Sewell describes the chronological advancements and evolution of the c-section as well as other medical technological improvements that helped increase surgical survival rates. The brochure and accompanying exhibit provide background and history of the procedure available to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, for whom it was published, and the general public. “Cesarean Section—A Brief History” provides a cohesive explanation of the chronological history and advancements of c-sections, a procedure that millions of people undergo to give birth each year.

Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski published Not of Woman Born in 1990. The book is a historical account of the cesarean birth procedure, hereafter c-section, during the Renaissance in Europe. A c-section is a surgical procedure that medical professionals use to deliver a fetus through an incision in a pregnant person’s abdomen. During the medieval and Renaissance periods, midwives performed c-sections on pregnant women after they had died when there was a chance that the fetus was still alive. They did this so the midwife could get the baby baptized, enabling it to be buried in sacred ground after death. Not of Woman Born traces how the procedure evolved in the late fifteenth and sixteenth century to be more commonly performed by male surgeons, rather than midwives, to save both the mother and the fetus. Blumenfeld-Kosinski provides historical, religious, and cultural context for understanding how people viewed and practiced c-sections in Europe during medieval and Renaissance times, in contrast to how people view and rely on the widespread delivery procedure in modern times.

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a researcher from Germany who studied the causative agents of infectious diseases in various parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Koch developed what researchers call Koch’s postulates, which are four criteria designed to establish whether a bacterium causes a certain disease, and as of 2025, many researchers still use Koch’s postulates to guide their research. He also received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis, an infectious disease that primarily attacks the lungs. Koch’s research on identifying disease-causing bacteria for various infectious diseases has advanced disease prevention and treatment, especially for tuberculosis, which has the ability to transmit from mother to child.

In 2021, Brooke Wilson and colleagues published “Oral Administration of Maternal Vaginal Microbes at Birth to Restore Gut Microbiome Development in Infants Born by Caesarean Section: A Pilot Randomised Placebo-controlled Trial,” hereafter “Oral Administration,” in eBiomedicine. Previous researchers had established that neonates born via caesarean section, or c-section, the surgical delivery of an infant through an incision made in the mother’s abdomen, have different gut microbiomes from neonates delivered vaginally. They further hypothesized that such a difference may be because infants born by c-section do not receive exposure to their mother’s vaginal microbiome during delivery. Thus, Wilson and colleagues investigate whether oral vaginal seeding, or the process of transferring vaginal microbes to a newborn’s mouth, can restore the gut microbiome of newborns born by c-section. “Oral Administration” was one of the first articles to demonstrate that oral vaginal seeding is ineffective in altering the gut microbiome of newborns delivered by c-section and prompted other researchers to explore alternative research routes to enhancing the gut microbiome of newborns born by c-section.

In 2010, Maria Dominguez-Bello, Elizabeth Costello, Monica Contreras, and colleagues published “Delivery Mode Shapes the Acquisition and Structure of the Initial Microbiota Across Multiple Body Habitats in Newborns,” hereafter “Delivery Mode” in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The term microbiota, which the authors use interchangeably with the term microbiome, refers to the collection of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, found in and on the human body. The development of the microbiome, which begins at birth when a newborn is first exposed to the mother’s microbiota, impacts the development of the immune system, and how a person’s body responds to disease. Though researchers in the early 2000s were aware of a connection between delivery mode and the neonatal gut microbiome, they knew little about how delivery mode affects a neonate’s microbiome beyond the gut. Dominguez-Bello and associates’ experiment was one of the first to show that a neonate’s microbial community is uniform across their body and elaborate on the differences in microbiomes across delivery methods, which can make neonates born via c-section more susceptible to conditions such as asthma.

Maria Regina Torloni and colleagues published “Classifications for Cesarean Section: A Systematic Review,” hereafter “Classifications for C-sections,” in 2011 in the journal PLOS One. A Cesarean section, or C-section, is a surgical birth through an incision in the pregnant person’s abdomen and uterus. Across the world, medical professionals use many different C-section classification systems to group the procedures according to particular features of the medical situation, such as the person undergoing the C-section or their specific medical needs. The authors of “Classifications for C-sections” systematically review the various available classification systems and evaluate them to identify their strengths and weaknesses. In “Classifications for C-sections,” the authors stress the need for a standardized classification system that experts can use to communicate internationally and address the health needs of pregnant people seeking C-sections.