An explanatory note at the beginning summarises the basics: the caesarean was at term, and for a medical reason (the risk of uterine rupture) rather than prompted by a desire to remove the child from the mother; the mother's own QC did not oppose the procedure. As the other judgement strongly suggested, Essex County Council and social services played no part in the proceedings, confirming that the Telegraph's original report was incorrect.

However, it's also worth noting is that the ruling suggests the local authority were planning to use police powers to take the child into protection once it was born; the judge advises them (although they were not present in court) that this would be heavy handed, and that they should instead go through the courts - which, as the other judgement states, they subsequently did.

We will update this post further as we look at the ruling in more detail.