Upvote:2
There are plenty of problems related to childbirth that will kill both mother and child without intervention. This was considerably reduced by the invention of forceps but that did not happen until the 1600s. Low-tech childbirth is dangerous.
If you're reasonably sure that you're going to lose both mother and child without doing a Caesarean, then doing it for decent odds of saving the child and almost certainly losing the mother may be the best option you have.
Without modern equipment, you don't know all that much about the condition of the child.