Symphysiotomy, The Childbirth Procedure That Butchered The Woman’s Pelvis With A Chainsaw

Symphysiotomy, The Childbirth Procedure That Butchered The Woman’s Pelvis With A Chainsaw

"I was screaming and being restrained. I couldn't see much except for them sawing. It was excruciating pain… I was butchered." For centuries, doctors used scissors, saws, and even an early version of the chainsaw to deliver babies. They'd cut open pregnant women's pubic symphysis joint to widen their pelvis and help babies who were stuck in the birth canal. This procedure was called symphysiotomy, and though it sounds medieval, it was regularly performed in Ireland until the 1980s. In the mid-20th century, most experts agreed that undergoing more than three Cesarean sections was dangerous and that mothers who reached that limit should use contraception to prevent future pregnancies. However, Catholic doctors who didn't believe in contraception would do anything to avoid performing C-sections — including symphysiotomy. Thousands of women were forced to undergo the procedure, and many of them didn't even know what was happening to them. One Irish mother named Rita McCann described her symphysiotomy in 1957 as "agony, literally agony," saying, "My legs were strapped into stirrups… I was helpless and I did not know what was going to happen." Another woman named Cora recalled, "I seen [the doctor] go and take out a proper hacksaw… The blood shot up to the ceiling, up onto his glasses, all over the nurses." Go inside the appalling history of symphysiotomy and the countless women it left permanently disabled: Beginning in the late 16th century, physicians assisting mothers with difficult childbirths would slice open a joint in their pelvis to widen it and allow the infant to pass through the birth canal — and the symphysiotomy remained in use in Ireland until the 1980s. Before it became the horror movie murder weapon of choice, the chainsaw was actually intended to be used in medicine. Specifically, it was created to aid in childbirth. Starting in the 19th century, doctors sometimes used primitive chainsaws to deliver babies in a procedure called symphysiotomy. The bland-sounding term masks what was, for many women, a traumatizing and debilitating process. A symphysiotomy involved sawing through the cartilage and ligaments of the pelvic joint — and in extreme cases, the bone itself — to allow infants to easily pass through the birth canal. Though long seen as a safer option than a Cesarean section, symphysiotomies dipped in popularity as medical technology improved and childbirth became safer. But that wasn’t the case in Ireland. There, doctors guided by both medicine and religion continued to rely on symphysiotomies to deliver babies up through the 20th century. This is the gory history of the excruciating procedure. How Childbirth Led To Chainsaws In the 20th century, chainsaws evolved from cutting bone and ligaments to cutting wood. In 1905, American Samuel J. Bens submitted a patent for an electric chainsaw to help fell the “huge redwood timber of the Pacific coast.” Chainsaws of this caliber, once huge and unwieldy, became lighter and lighter as time progressed. In 1920, German engineer Andreas Stihl came up with the handheld chainsaw, which closely resembles what is still in use today. As such, the days of using chainsaws for childbirth seem to be behind us. Doctors have better options now, like Cesarean sections, to help mothers and babies get through difficult births. But for the women who survived symphysiotomies, the horrible memory never entirely goes away. “You blank a lot of it out, over the years,” McCann told The Guardian in 2014, “but you don’t forget. It gave me the horrors.”