PORTLAND, Ore. — With the sheer number of people living unhoused in Portland, pregnancy and birth are becoming a more common facet of life on the streets. Since February, Portland Fire & Rescue says it’s responded to four pregnancy-related calls in downtown Portland.
Two of those calls happened in April. The latest, a lieutenant with PF&R said, happened on the streets of Old Town.
“We pulled up, there was tents, there was debris around, there was probably five or six homeless people around,” Lt. McKenzie Handley said, describing the scene at 3rd and Flanders, “and then we had our patient, and there she was on her hands and knees and she was visibly pregnant — 7, 8, 9 months pregnant. Her water had broken and she needed to go to the hospital … and you kind of have this other scene around you, with people who are very emotionally charged and fired up as well.”…