FIRST WOMAN TO PERFORM C-SECTION ON HERSELF.

FIRST WOMAN TO PERFORM C-SECTION ON HERSELF.

INES RAMIREZ PEREZ, a 40-year-old mother of seven, made medical history on March 5, 2000, when she became the first woman ever to perform a C-section on herself in which both the baby and mother survived. In her isolated, one-room cabin home, Perez performed a modern miracle. She was unable to seek immediate help or medical attention, with her husband—her usual birth coach and assistant during labor—out at a cantina in town that had no phone. Neither did Perez

Midnight was fast approaching, and after 12 hours of unbearable labor pain, Perez knew what she had to do. “I couldn’t stand the pain anymore,” she told a reporter. “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,” she added. Having lost a baby girl just two years earlier because of obstructed labor, Perez was driven by her desperation to save her unborn child as she made a brave but terrifying decision with only her younger children to accompany her.

Left to endure her labor alone and knowing she would not be able to deliver the baby vàginally after her earlier pregnancy trouble, Perez got started on the task at hand with no previous medical training or experience. Going simply on mother’s intuition, Perez began to operate on herself with a knife with a 6-inch blade, doing anything she could to birth her baby safely. After more than an hour of work and three separate but successful attempts to cut into her abdomen, Perez was able to reach into her uterus and pull out her baby boy.

As her final act of bravery before fainting, Perez cut her new son’s umbilical cord with a pair of scissors. After regaining consciousness, Perez bandaged her wound with her sweater and ordered her oldest son, 8-year-old Benito, to find help in town. After several hours, health workers arrived at the scene to find,