A woman being forced to give birth on a hospital lawn has horrified Mexicans. A photograph of the in indigenous woman squatting on the hospital clinic's lawn after giving birth, her newborn still bound by the umbilical cord, has shocked Mexico and shed light on ugly inequalities still pervasive in the country.

Due to the outrage the incident has caused, authorities in the southern state of Oaxaca have suspended the center's director, Dr Adrian Cruz, while officials conduct state and federal investigations into the Oct. 2 incident.

 The mother in the photograph, Irma Lopez, 29, was told by a nurse at the health center that she was "still not ready" to deliver, despite being fully dilated and in labor. The nurse claimed Lopez was only eight months pregnant and should go outside and walk. The nurse turned Lopez and her husband away, saying a doctor would check on them in the morning.

An hour and a half later, Lopez's water broke.

She gave birth to a son, her third child, while grabbing the wall of a house next to the clinic for support.

"I didn't want to deliver like this. It was so ugly and with so much pain," Lopez said.

She remained alone for the birth because her husband was attempting to convince the nurse to call for help

The case is a stark illustration of the shortcomings of maternal care in Mexico, where hundreds of women still die during or immediately following pregnancy. It also points to persistent systematic discrimination against Mexico's indigenous people.

The photograph of Lopez giving birth on the hospital lawn ran in several national newspapers and was widely circulated on the Internet.

"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," said Mayra Morales, Oaxaca's representative for the national Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights.

Lopez, who is of Mazatec ethnicity, said she and her husband walked for an hour to reach the clinic from the family's one-bedroom hut in the mountains of northern Oaxaca-- it would have taken them longer to reach the nearest highway to catch a ride to a hospital. Lopez knew her body from the births of the previous two children, and said she knew she didn't have time for that.

In Oxaca, about one in five women gave birth in a place that is not a hospital or a clinic in 2011, according to Mexico's census. Although some have praised Mexico for improving its maternal health care, the mortality rate still stands at about 50 deaths per 100,000 births.

After giving birth, Lopez was taken in by the clinic, then discharged with prescriptions for medications and products that cost her roughly $30. Lopez and the baby are in good health.

Lopez added that poverty-stircken villagers are used to having to fend for themselves and being abandoned by Mexico's health care system.

"I am naming him Salvador," said Lopez, meaning "Savior" in English. "He really saved himself."

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