Mexican woman gives birth at checkpoint

Mexico City, Dec 30 (IANS/EFE) A drunk-driving checkpoint in the Mexican capital became an improvised delivery room for a 25-year-old pregnant woman, authorities said.

“This is the first occasion where a case like this has occurred in seven years of operating the drunk-driving checkpoints,” the Mexico City Public Safety Office said in a communique Wednesday.

Sabino Cabrera Torres and Alicia Bonilla had gotten into a taxi to go to a health clinic to get medical attention because the expectant mother’s water had broken.

“With the serious situation the woman was in, the taxi driver came across the checkpoint” and stopped there to “request help”, and the officers posted there immediately called an ambulance.

The officers who normally are tasked with arresting drunk drivers showed calmness and focus and managed to “stabilise the lady” who gave birth shortly thereafter right in the taxi.

The ambulance personnel arrived at the site of the incident, which is in the working-class neighborhood of Iztapalapa, and “confirmed the birth of a boy in good health, who was transported to the De la Villa Children’s Hospital along with the mother, where both are reported to be stable”, authorities said.

–IANS/EFE