Lagom Thread A Caesarean story of myth, magic and medicine.

In an attempt to heal, Marsh began wondering why the words ‘caesarean section’ bring up feelings of doubt, shame and judgement for some but a sense of safety, relief, validation and reassurance for others. Why are those two powerful words rarely spoken of in the same ecstatic tones as so-called ‘natural’, or vaginal birth? Why is the procedure rarely called ‘beautiful’ or associated with an innate sense of power?

Working her way through history, culture and folklore, it wasn’t long before Marsh stumbled upon the pioneering voices and fascinating tales history seems to have forgotten. Take Koronis, mother of Aesclepius, the Greek God of surgery, or Dr James Barry, born Margaret Anne Bulkley, who performed an early and rare successful c-section in which both mother and child survived, in South Africa in 1826.

Weaving in her own experience, a journalist’s insatiable curiosity, and the stories of both contemporary and historical women who endured and drove developments, Marsh unflinchingly but compassionately examines a procedure that is much more than surgery.