Teachers really are prepared for anything.
Last week, Amberlynn Balli, Valentina Davalos, and Erica Beverly — all teachers at IDEA Bluff Springs Elementary School in Texas — were leaving an awards ceremony for students when they saw the father of a second grader outside the women's bathroom. They learned that his wife, Janet Karina Soto-Rodriguez, was inside, giving birth. She had felt sick during the ceremony and they left to go to the hospital, but didn't make it.
The women ran into the bathroom, where Soto-Rodriguez was holding her newborn daughter. Balli called 911 while Davalos took the baby and began cleaning her mouth and nose and rubbing her back to make her cry. "It was a beautiful cry because then we knew she was okay," Davalos told Good Morning America. The 911 operator passed along instructions on how to care for Soto-Rodriguez, and other teachers began gathering outside the bathroom, running all over campus to get the necessary supplies like blankets and gloves.
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"We wanted to let her soak in the fact that she had just created life," Balli said. "And wanted to make the delivery as comfortable and beautiful and private as possible no matter the circumstances." After about 10 minutes, an ambulance arrived and took Soto-Rodriguez and the baby to the hospital. The teachers went back to their classrooms, and were relived when they later received word Soto-Rodriguez and her baby, Andrea, were happy and healthy. Soto-Rodriguez said she will tell Andrea when she grows up she "came ready to tackle this world."
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