Woman Gives Birth On Healthcare Center Lawn After Being Turned Away

Woman Gives Birth On Healthcare Center Lawn After Being Turned Away

A pregnant Mexico woman who says she was turned away by her local healthcare center when she arrived and told them she was in labor is making headlines across the globe after a reporter snapped a photo of her giving birth on the healthcare center lawn just moments after.

via CBS News

An indigenous woman squats in pain after giving birth, her newborn still bound by the umbilical cord and lying on the ground. It’s a photograph that horrified Mexicans because of where it took place: the lawn outside a medical clinic where the woman had been denied help, and it struck a nerve in a country where inequity is still pervasive.

The government of the southern state of Oaxaca announced Wednesday that it has suspended the health center’s director, Dr. Adrian Cruz, while officials conduct state and federal investigations into the Oct. 2 incident.

The mother, Irma Lopez, 29, told The Associated Press that she and her husband were turned away from the health center by a nurse who said she was only eight months pregnant and “still not ready” to deliver.

The nurse told her to go outside and walk, and said a doctor could check her in the morning, Lopez said. But an hour and a half later, her water broke, and Lopez gave birth to a son, her third child, while grabbing the wall of a house next to the clinic.

“I didn’t want to deliver like this. It was so ugly and with so much pain,” she said, adding she was alone for the birth because her husband was trying to persuade the nurse to call for help.

A witness took the photo and gave it to a news reporter.

This is crazy!! Thankfully, both the mother and her baby are doing well after this hellish ordeal.

You can check out the EXTREMELY NSFW version of the photo HERE.

Photo Credit: La Razon