This Woman Performed Her Own Cesarean Section — and Survived
The story of a mother who dissects her own belly to save the unborn child
A woman named Ines Ramirez Perez or better known as Ines fought for her life when she underwent surgery on her own stomach to save her unborn baby. She gave birth to the baby by Caesarean section. Despite having no medical training, the operation was successful and both she and her baby survived.
In March 2000, a pregnant woman named Ines Ramirez Perez, 40-years old and living alone in a rural area of southern Mexico, was in her one-room cabin when she felt labor pains. Her mind immediately leaped back to the stillbirth she’d suffered two years earlier, and the panic set in.
The baby had died as the result of an obstructed labor, and with the nearest hospital over 80 km from her home in rural Oaxaca, Mexico, the 40-year-old wasn’t prepared to risk it happening again.
Ines was a mother of 7 children and she was only accompanied by a 6-year-old son named Bonito while her husband was working and still did not return home.
As the day got dark and after 12 hours of constant pain, Ines sat down on a bench and drank three small glasses of hard liquor. Then she grabbed a 6-inch knife, usually used for butchering animals, and unbelievably dissected her abdomen to carry out what would be the world’s only known successful cesarean section that is self-performed. She had no medical expertise, but she relied on her experience butchering animals to operate on herself. Instead of making the customary horizontal cut along the bikini line, she made three separate incisions in her abdomen, cutting vertically next to her belly button while squatting.
After operating on herself for an hour, Ines reached inside her uterus and pulled out her baby boy. She then severed the umbilical cord with a pair of scissors and became unconscious. After regaining consciousness, Ines wakes up and rushed to wrap her stomach with clothes so that her bleeding would stop. Inez also sent her 6-year-old son to seek help.
A few hours later, a village health assistant Cruz and one more health worker found both mother and son alive besides each other. Cruz sewed the seven inch cut with normal…
