Mexico: Medical centre director suspended after woman gives birth on lawn outside clinic

Guadalajara, MEXICO – The director of a medical center in southwestern Mexico, which has been accused of turning away a heavily pregnant indigenous woman who later gave birth on the lawn outside the clinic, has been suspended pending the results of an investigation into the incident.

A shocking photo of 29-year-old Irma Lopez squatting in pain after giving birth and still attached by the umbilical cord to her purplish newborn baby has been splashed across Mexican media and picked up by international news outlets over the past week.

The government of Oaxaca announced Wednesday that Dr. Adrian Cruz had been suspended while state and federal officials investigated the events of Oct. 2.

Lopez claims she and her husband went to the health clinic in the village of San Felipe Jalapa de Diaz, but were denied help by a nurse at the center who said the eight-month-pregnant woman was “still not ready” to deliver.

Less than two hours later, Lopez’s waters broke and she gave birth to her fourth child on the lawn outside the clinic.

“I didn't want to deliver like this. It was so ugly and with so much pain," she was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Mexican newspaper El Universal reported Thursday that another indigenous woman, also aged 29, has since come forward claiming she also gave birth outside the same clinic after being turned away by staff in July.