A pregnant woman in Mexico is reported to have given birth to a healthy baby boy after performing a caesarean section on herself with a kitchen knife, doctors said yesterday.

It is thought to be the first case of a self-administered caesarean in which both mother and baby have survived.

The unidentified 40-year-old, who lives in a rural area without electricity, running water or sanitation, and whose home was an eight-hour drive from the nearest hospital, performed the operation when she found she could not deliver the baby naturally.

She had lost a previous baby due to labour complications.

"She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in three attempts ... and delivered a male infant who breathed immediately and cried," said R F Valle, a doctor at the Dr Manuel Velasco Suarez hospital in San Pablo, Mexico.

Dr Valle recounted the event in a report in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

Before losing consciousness the woman told one of her children to call a local nurse for help. After the nurse stitched the wound with a sewing needle and cotton thread, the mother and baby were transferred and treated by Dr Valle and his colleagues at the nearest hospital.

"This case represents an unusual and extraordinary decision by a woman in labour who, unable to deliver herself spontaneously, and with no medical help or resources, decided to perform a caesarean section upon herself," Dr Valle said.

He added that the instinct to save a baby could move a woman to perform extraordinary acts but said the self-performed operation would not have been necessary had there been adequate medical care.