Inmate mom had been checked twice at hospital

DES MOINES (AP) ? Authorities say an inmate who gave birth in Polk County Jail had been checked and discharged twice the same day by a local hospital.

The Des Moines Register says no doctors or nurses were in attendance when 25-year-old Ieasha Meyers delivered her baby son on Aug. 29. He was born in a four-bed medical holding cell near the jail?s clinic.

Jail chief Doug Phillips says Meyers was sent to Broadlawns Medical Center twice that day. She was held for about 3½ hours each time before being sent back to the jail. Doctors said she wasn?t ready to deliver.

Phillips says Meyers went into labor and gave birth a little more than three hours after she returned the second time.

A hospital spokeswoman says she can?t talk about Meyers? case.