Justus Heinrich Wigand (13 September 1769 – 10 February 1817) was a

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

obstetrician Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

born in Reval (Tallinn). Wigand studied

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

at the Universities of

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

and

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

, earning his doctorate at the latter. From 1793 to 1814 he was a physician in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, and afterwards lived in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

Schwetzingen Schwetzingen (; ) is a German town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, around southwest of Heidelberg and southeast of Mannheim. Schwetzingen is one of the five biggest cities of the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district and a medium-sized centre between ...

and

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

. He is remembered for introducing an assisted

breech delivery A breech birth is when a baby is born bottom first instead of head first, as is normal. Around 3–5% of pregnant women at term (37–40 weeks pregnant) have a breech baby. Due to their higher than average rate of possible complications for th ...

procedure known as the "Wigand maneuver".
Mondofacto Dictionary, definition of eponym His best written effort, "''Die Geburt des Menschen''" was published posthumously in 1820.

Selected publications

* ''Von den Ursachen und der Behandlung der Nachgeburtszögerungen'', 1803. * ''Drey den medicinischen Facultäten zu Paris und Berlin zur Prüfung übergebene geburtshülfliche Abhandlungen'', 1812. * ''Die Geburt des Menschen in physiologisch- diätetischer und pathologisch- therapeutischer Beziehung, grösstentheils nach eigenen Beobachtungen und Versuchen dargestellt'', 1820.

References

translated biography @

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

*Ottow (Benno).- Der Embryologe Sebastian Graf von Tredern und der Geburtshelfer Justus Heinrich Wigand in ihren Beziehungen zu Reval, Eesti Arst, Jg 1923, Nr 9, S. 253-256 1769 births 1817 deaths People from Tallinn People from Kreis Harrien Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire Physicians from the Russian Empire Obstetricians {{Germany-med-bio-stub