Before getting to the text of this article, I
observed the disturbing image of a lady giving birth on the grass with pain in
her eyes. That lady is Irma Lopez
and her newborn baby is Salvador. In Oaxaca, one of
the poorest states in Mexico, a pregnant mother and her husband walked an hour
in the dark to a clinic with the hopes of getting help to give birth. Despite
the fact that she was fully dilated, the expecting mother was turned away. The couple
was Mazatecs and could not speak Spanish so the only word they
could properly understand was the word ‘no’. The nurses at the clinic argue that
the issue at hand was simply a misunderstanding due to the language barrier and
there was limited staff at the time. Nevertheless, the mother was left to give
birth to her child alone while her husband went to beg for help. Not only was
she alone but she gave birth publicly without any medical help.
While I read this
article I was both disturbed and shocked that a clinic could turn away a mother
in labor and ignore that fact that she was just feet away, still on the clinic
property giving birth. Despite my disgust, I can connect this incident to both
the lack of equality among the sexes and poverty in other countries. Many women
die every year while giving birth. This proves that women are not offered
proper medical attention especially when it comes to such a dangerous task like
giving birth. Another thing I found shocking was the fact that Irma was not the
first lady to give birth on the lawn of clinic. This causes me to believe that
the live of a woman is not valued globally. Although the issue was addressed and
made public, there is another woman in Oaxaca that did not receive justice for
the pain and humiliation she went through. I connect this to poverty because in
the US it is illegal to turn away someone who does not have the funds to pay
for medical expenses. In other Oaxaca they may not have the money to take in
every patient that needs attention.
Khadijah Tucker
10/11/2013
11:51
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