Second-grade teachers help mom deliver baby at school: "Teachers do everything, whatever it takes"

Andres Soto-Rodriguez and his wife Janet Karina will forever be grateful to a trio of Texas teachers for the safe birth of their newborn daughter. The couple was attending an award ceremony for their second-grader, Luigiani, at IDEA Bluff Springs School on January 22 when their impatient little bundle of joy decided it was time for her grand entrance into this world. Taking refuge in the gym restroom, the tense parents were at a complete loss when help arrived in the form of teachers Valentina Davalos, Amberlynn Balli, and Erica Beverly.

Speaking to Good Morning America, Davalos—a second-grade math teacher—revealed that the teachers had been leaving the award ceremony when they noticed Soto-Rodriguez standing at the door of the women's restroom. "When I saw him at the bathroom door and saw his face I just said, 'Oh no, the baby is here.' I had a conversation with the dad about 10 minutes before and he told me they were going to the hospital because [his wife] wasn’t feeling well," she said. As soon as they walked into the bathroom, the teachers saw an exhausted Janet holding her newborn daughter and immediately jumped into action.

"I felt a huge relief. There was finally someone there to help me," Janet said of the moment she saw the women walking in. While Balli, a second-grade reading teacher, took over the call with the 911 operator to translate for the Spanish-speaking couple, Davalos turned her attention to the newborn child in Janet's arms. She cleaned the infant's mouth and nose and wrapped her up in blankets to keep her warm. "I knew I had to clean her mouth and clean her nose and I rubbed her back and that’s when she started crying. It was a beautiful cry because then we knew she was okay," she revealed.

Following instructions from the 911 operator, Beverly—a support teacher—began caring for the new mother while a group of fellow teachers and staff outside the bathroom helped arrange all the necessary supplies. The 10 minutes they spent caring for Janet and the baby before the ambulance arrived felt like an eternity for Davalos, Balli, and Beverly. "There were a lot of things that needed to take place in a matter of split seconds. It now seems like a huge thing that we did but at the time we didn’t think of it like that," said Beverly.

The resourceful trio revealed their top priority while waiting for professional help was ensuring Janet's comfort as they wanted her to cherish the memory of giving birth to her daughter. "We wanted to let her soak in the fact that she had just created life. And wanted to make the delivery as comfortable and beautiful and private as possible no matter the circumstances," said Balli. "Teachers do everything, whatever it takes," Davalos chimed in. Although they went right back to their students in the classroom once the ambulance arrived, the three teachers couldn't take their minds off Janet and her daughter Andrea.

The teachers breathed a sigh of relief when they visited the mother and child at the hospital the next day and found them in good health. "Our biggest focus over the next 24 hours was did we do everything right to make sure they were safe? We thought about that until we were able to see them the next day. Once we knew they were safe and healthy, that was a moment of pride for us," said Beverly. As for the little miss impatient Andrea who couldn't wait to start school, Janet said she'll tell her daughter that she's "hero and an extremely brave girl" who "came ready to tackle this world."

Little Andrea will surely have some help conquering the world as in a statement posted on Facebook, IDEA Bluff Springs School Principal Virginia Callaway revealed that the child will be awarded a full-ride college scholarship. "On behalf of the entire network of IDEA Public Schools, we were excited to share that Andrea will have a full-ride college scholarship when she graduates from IDEA Public Schools—presumably as part of the class of 2038. The work we do with all of your children brings us such joy each day. We are over-the-moon to have this young scholar join our family," wrote Callaway.