A disturbing photograph of an indigenous woman from Mexico delivering a baby on a patch of grass outside a medical center has set off a firestorm online and sparked a national debate that led to the suspension of the head of the clinic that has turned the mother away.
The shocking image, taken by a passerby, shows 29-year-old Irma Lopez , who is of Mazatec ethnicity, squatting after giving birth, her face contorted in pain and her tiny newborn son still bound by the umbilical cord and lying on the ground.
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 October 2 incident.
Mrs Lopez, a married mother of three, said that she and her husband were turned away from the Rural Health Center of the village of San Felipe
Jalapa de Diaz by a nurse who said she was only eight months pregnant
and ‘still not ready’ to deliver, even though the woman was reportedly
fully dilated.
The couple, who are Mazatecs and do not speak Spanish, could not
understand much of what the nurse was telling them beyond the word ‘no,’
so they went outside.
Addressing the controversy later, the nurses blamed the incident on the
language barrier and claimed that they did not have enough staff on hand
to treat the woman due to a partial work stoppage.
An hour and a half later, at 7.30am, the woman’s water broke. Knowing
that the time has come, Lopez kneeled on the grass outside the clinic
and started pushing while grabbing the wall of a house.
...see the uncensored photo after the cut...
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