Jacob Nufer (fl. 1500), sometimes given as Jacques Nufu or as James Nufer,[1][2] was a Swiss swineherd and pig gelder (a person who castrates pigs)[3] who in 1500 reportedly performed the first successful Caesarean section on a living woman. The woman, his wife Elisabeth Alespachin, had been in labour for multiple days. Both Alespachin and the baby boy recovered quickly afterward; Alespachin went on to bear five or six more children, and the boy lived to 77. Nufer's procedure was first related in 1582 by Caspar Bauhin. Historians have doubted whether the operation occurred as Bauhin described, and have speculated that Alespachin may have instead been carrying an extrauterine pregnancy.
Background
editCaesarean sections were, until technical improvements were made in the late 19th century that decreased the procedure's mortality rate,[4] performed chiefly on women who were either dying or already deceased, in order to prevent the infant's death or, for religious reasons, allow the mother and baby's remains to be interred apart.[5] Living women who underwent Caesarean sections at the time almost invariably exsanguinated or died of sepsis.[6] Nufer had never before performed a surgery on a human, so he applied his knowledge of pig anatomy to the operation.[7][1] Nufer was illiterate[1] and lived in Siegershausen, in the canton of Thurgau in northern Switzerland.[8]
Caesarean section
editIn 1500, Nufer's wife, Elisabeth Alespachin,[9] went into labour while pregnant with their first child. She was still, after multiple days, unable to deliver.[10] Several lithotomists and thirteen midwives deemed Alespachin a lost cause,[3][2] so Nufer decided to operate on her himself upon gaining the mayor's permission.[11] Before the operation all the midwives, except for the two who did not oppose the procedure,[1] left the room. Nufer laid Alespachin onto a table[10] and, with the same method used to perform a version of a Caesarean section on a pregnant sow,[12] proceeded to cut Alespachin's uterus open and sew the wound closed after removing the infant, which was a boy. The uterus was, as was usual practice during the time period (surgeons feared that infections would result from internal sutures and believed, erroneously, that uterine contractions would naturally close the wound),[4] probably not stitched closed.[13] After the baby was washed,[10] the midwives who had left the room were allowed back in.[10] Alespachin and the boy recovered a few days afterward.[14]
The infant was healthy and lived to the age of 77; Alespachin lived to at least 60.[1][8][13] Alespachin went on to bear five or six more children, including one set of twins; one of the twins, John Nufer, became a judge of Siegershausen and was alive as of 1583.[15][1][13][3][16]
The case was not reported upon until eighty years after the fact, in 1582, by Caspar Bauhin in the appendix of his Latin translation of French physician Francois Rousset's obstetrical treatise Traitte Nouveau de l'hysterotomotokie, ou enfantement Caesarien.[13] The fact of Alespachin's subsequent uncomplicated vaginal deliveries has led historians to speculate that the pregnancy may have been grown in her abdomen instead of in her uterus, and doubt that the operation ever occurred. Pietro Gall countered, however, that it would have been implausible for an infant born of an extrauterine pregnancy to come out healthy and to have taken so long to be delivered.[13][16]
References
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Burton, John (1751). An essay towards a complete new system of midwifry, theoretical and practical. London : J. Hodges. pp. 268–269.
- 1 2 Wordin, N. E. (1896). "A Porro-Caesarean Operation for Pregnancy Complicated With Fibroid Tumor of the Uterus". Yale Medical Journal: 226.
- 1 2 3 Reiss, Herbert (July 2003). "Abdominal delivery in the 16th century". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 96 (7): 370. doi:10.1177/014107680309600729. ISSN 0141-0768. PMC 539559. PMID 12835467.
- 1 2 "Cesarean Section - A Brief History: Part 2". www.nlm.nih.gov. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- ↑ "Cesarean Section - A Brief History: Part 1". www.nlm.nih.gov. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- ↑ Rettberg, Felix (September 28, 2009). "DIE STUNDE DES KASTRATORS". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- ↑ Stalder, Helmut (2021-01-19). "Ein Schweinekastrator aus Siegershausen schaffte um das Jahr 1500 bei seiner Frau den ersten erfolgreichen Kaiserschnitt". Thurgauer Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- 1 2 Royal College of Physicians of London (1889). A system of gynecology and obstetrics. pp. 250–251.
- ↑ Rucker, M. Pierce; Rucker, Edwin M. (1951). "A Librarian Looks at Cesarean Section". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 25 (2): 134. ISSN 0007-5140. JSTOR 44443604. PMID 14821642. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 Schumann, Edward Armin (1928). Extra-uterine pregnancy. New York : Appleton. pp. 4–5.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - ↑ "Marital Cesarean Sections". Virginia Medical Monthly. Medical Society of Virginia. 1950. p. 202-203.
- ↑ Cummings, Mike (February 11, 2000). "Museum highlights veterinary history". The News-Star. p. 16. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate (2019). Not of Woman Born. Cornell University Press. p. 42. doi:10.1353/book.68527. ISBN 978-1-5017-4048-0. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
- ↑ Farrugia Randon, Robert (1969). "Notes on the history of Caesarean section". Chest-piece. 3 (1).
- ↑ Cangiamila, Francesco Emmanuele (1774). Embriologia sagrada. En Madrid : En la Imprenta de Pedro Marin. p. 100.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - 1 2 Drife, J (1 May 2002). "The start of life: a history of obstetrics". Postgraduate Medical Journal. 78 (919): 314. doi:10.1136/pmj.78.919.311. ISSN 0032-5473. PMID 12151591.