WARNING: This story is not for the squeamish or faint-hearted but my god this mother is incredible. Her extreme measures highlight the grave lack of maternal care and resources that a huge proportion of women still face in developing countries.
The self-inflicted surgery was performed after the 40-year-old woman went into spontaneous labour but was unable to deliver the child vaginally.
The mother-of-eight living in a remote town was more than eight hours drive from the nearest hospital and had lost a baby during obstructed childbirth two years previously.
A case study reported in this month's
Discover magazine detailed the extreme events:
"She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in 3 attempts in the right paramedial region, cut the uterus itself longitudinally, and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried. Apparently, she did not bleed excessively and asked one of her children to call a local nurse for help before she lost consciousness."
The mother had no previous medical experience but had some knife skills from slaughtering animals.
The local nurse provided some medical care to those living in the village, where there was no access to running water, electricity or sanitation, but she did not provide antenatal care. Upon arriving at the scene, she rearranged some of the mother's organs including the bowels and then sutured the wounds using a household needle and thread. The mother and baby were then transferred to the nearest hospital.
In hospital, the mother underwent two exploratory surgical procedures to ensure no further internal damage and to rule out intestinal obstruction. She was treated with antibiotics and was discharged from hospital on the 10th day after the incident.
