Jacob Nufer

Jacob Nufer (fl. 1500) was a Swiss pig gelder who reportedly performed the first successful Caesarean section on a living woman, who was his own wife, in 1500.

Caesarean section

In 1500, Nufer's wife, a woman named Elisabeth Alespachin,^[1] went into labour. Several days later, when she was still unable to expel the infant, Nufer decided to cut the foetus out of her. After obtaining permission from authorities, he summoned thirteen midwives, though only two were wiling to remain in the room during the operation. Nufer proceeded to open Alespachin's uterus with a single incision, remove the infant, and, in the same manner he would suture a pig after operating upon its genitalia, sew the wound closed. As was commonplace for gynaecological surgeries at the time, Nufer likely did not suture the uterus.^[2] The infant was in good health.^[2] After the operation, Alespachin bore five more children, including twins, throughout the rest of her life.^[2][3]

The case was not reported upon until eighty years after the fact, in 1582, by Caspar Bauhin in his Latin translation of French physician Francois Rousset's obstetrical treatise Traitte Nouveau de l'hysterotomotokie, ou enfantement Caesarien.^[2] The fact of Alespachin's subsequent uncomplicated vaginal deliveries has led historians to doubt Bauhin's account of the operation,^[3] speculating that the pregnancy may have been extrauterine.^[2]