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Mexican Women Denied Medical Care, Gave Birth on Facility’s Lawn

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: Oct 10, 2013 10:32 AM EDT

According to the officials, a Mexican woman was denied medical care outside of a Mexican medical clinic. The woman, 29-year-old Irma Lopez, was then forced to deliver her own child right on the medical center's lawn. The director of the facility, Dr. Adrian Cruz has since been suspended.

The Oaxaca state government reported that within two hours of being turned away by the center, a witness photographed Lopez as she birthed her son. The photograph, which depicts Lopez in a squatting position as her boy lies on the floor still attached to her via the umbilical cord, was given to a reporter and has since been circulated across many news outlets.

Lopez, who is of Mazatec ethnicity, stated that she and her husband had walked an hour just to get to the facility. The couple lives in a one-bedroom hut located in the mountains of northern Oaxaca. They were turned down due to the fact that she was eight months pregnant and according to the nurse, she was not ready to deliver the baby. Despite what the nurse said, Lopez's water broke after walking around the facility for an hour and a half. The cries for help were not answered and Lopez was forced to have her child in one of the worst scenarios ever.

"I did not want to deliver like this," Lopez had told the Associated Press according to the NY Daily News.  "It was so ugly and with so much pain."

Lopez was admitted to the facility after her birth and was provided with medications and treatment. She was released on the same day. The baby boy, who is the couple's third child, was named Salvador.

"The photo is giving visibility to a wider structural problem that occurs within indigenous communities: Women are not receiving proper care. They are not being offered quality health services, not even a humane treatment," Mayra Morales, Oaxaca's representative for the national Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, said.

Based on the little information gathered, the facility did not offer help because it was understaffed. They did not believe that Lopez was ready to deliver. The federal Health Department and the National Human Rights Commission are now investigating the incident.

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