Warning: This article contains graphic content which some readers may find distressing.
As if childbirth wasn't painful and stressful enough as it is, a woman in Mexico was left with little choice but to perform a C-section on herself when she went into labor alone.
That's right; not only did she have to deal with bringing an entire human life into the world, but she also had to figure out how to do so by performing a medical procedure on herself. Oh, and she had no medical training.
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The incredible news is that both the woman and child survived the ordeal, which took place in southern Mexico in 2000.
The mother, Inés Ramírez Pérez, had already welcomed eight children into the world, though she had sadly lost a ninth due to obstructed labor. Pérez lived in a one-room cabin in a small village with no electricity, running water, or sanitation, and she found herself in a life-or-death situation when she went into labor with her newest child.
Pérez labored for 12 hours with no other adults around to help her, and when her baby refused to come, she had to take drastic measures.
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Speaking later to The Sydney Morning Herald, Pérez recalled: "I couldn't stand the pain anymore. And if my baby was going to die, then I decided I would have to die, too. But if he was going to grow up, I was going to see him grow up, and I was going to be with my child. I thought that God would save both our lives."
Though Pérez didn't have any medical training, she had previous experience in slaughtering animals, and she decided to put it to use.
With the help of a kitchen knife and three small glasses of hard liquor, the mom proceeded to cut through the skin, fat and muscle on her abdomen before slicing through her own uterus in a way that's thought to have kept her from damaging her internal organs.
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An hour after she began the procedure, she pulled her son out of her womb, and he began to breathe and cry.
Pérez asked one of her children to call for a nurse, then she fell unconscious. When the nurse arrived, they proceeded to clean up the wound and sew up Pérez's skin. The mother was then taken to the nearest hospital, about eight hours away.
Medics confirmed the mother hadn't suffered any sepsis or injury to her organs, and provided her with antibiotics.
Amazingly, just 10 days after the major operation, the mother had recovered and was discharged from the hospital.
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The report on Pérez's case helped raise awareness on the need for health measures to be implemented all over the world, particularly in rural areas of developing countries.
Emily Brown