Desperate Mom of 9 Gives Herself Emergency C-Section, Saving Both Lives A 40-year-old mother of nine in Mexico, Inés Ramírez, performed an emergency cesarean section on herself during her ninth pregnancy, delivering her baby and surviving the ordeal. The case, detailed in a 2003 report by the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, highlights an extraordinary act of desperation and survival in a remote, resource-scarce environment. Ramírez, living in Oaxaca, a mountain town with limited access to medical facilities, had already delivered eight children. Her previous pregnancy had ended in a stillbirth, and this time, her labor stalled during her ninth delivery. The baby could not descend through the birth canal, a situation she recognized from her prior experience. With no medical help available and her husband away deer hunting, she took matters into her own hands. Drawing on her knowledge of slaughtering goats—a skill she had honed in her rural community—Ramírez used a butcher’s knife to perform the surgery. She consumed three shots of hard liquor to steady her nerves and began the procedure. According to the report, she made a vertical incision near the midline of her abdomen, cutting through the rectus muscles to access her uterus. She delivered the male fetus without significant bleeding, as her incisions avoided major blood vessels. After completing the surgery, Ramírez collapsed from pain and shock. She instructed one of her children to fetch her cousin, a local health assistant, who arrived to find her unconscious with an open wound. Without proper sutures, the cousin used a sewing needle and cotton thread to close the abdominal incision. The cousin then drove Ramírez 2.#ines_ramirez #international_journal_of_gynecology_and_obstetrics #oaxaca #shannon_m_clark #self_performed_c_section
