Teachers reunite with mom whose baby they helped deliver at school
Janet Karina Soto-Rodriguez gave birth in a bathroom at her son's school.
Three teachers in Texas ended a school day last week not only having taught their students but also helping to deliver a student's new sister.
Amberlynn Balli, Valentina Davalos and Erica Beverly were leaving an awards ceremony at IDEA Bluff Springs elementary school when they saw the father of one of their students 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," Davalos, a second-grade math teacher, told "Good Morning America." "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."
The dad at the bathroom door was Andres Soto-Rodriguez, the father of Luigiani, a second-grade student at IDEA Bluff Springs. Inside the bathroom was his wife and Luigiani's mom, Janet Karina Soto-Rodriguez.
When the teachers walked into the bathroom they saw Janet Karina Soto-Rodriguez holding her newborn daughter and jumped into action.
"I felt a huge relief," Janet Karina Soto-Rodriguez told "GMA" of the moment the teachers walked in. "There was finally someone there to help me."
Balli, a second-grade reading teacher, immediately got on the phone with the 911 operator so that she could translate for the couple, who speak Spanish.
Davalos took over caring for the newborn baby, cleaning her mouth and nose and wrapping her in blankets.
"I knew I had to clean her mouth and clean her nose and I rubbed her back and that’s when she started crying," said Davalos. "It was a beautiful cry because then we knew she was okay."
Beverly, a support teacher, took charge of caring for Soto-Rodriguez, following instructions from the 911 operator.
Right outside the bathroom was what the teachers called their "support team," a group of fellow teachers and staff who would run to get whatever supplies were needed, from blankets to gloves.
The three teachers say they probably spent around 10 minutes with Soto-Rodriguez and her newborn in the bathroom until an ambulance arrived, though it felt "like forever."
"There were a lot of things that needed to take place in a matter of split seconds," said Beverly. "It now seems like a huge thing that we did but at the time we didn’t think of it like that."
Balli, Davalos and Beverly said they were thinking the whole time of Soto-Rodriguez's comfort, including making sure she had privacy and time to take it all in.
"We wanted to let her soak in the fact that she had just created life," said Balli. "And wanted to make the delivery as comfortable and beautiful and private as possible no matter the circumstances."
After the emergency delivery, the three teachers went right back to their students in the classroom.
"Teachers do everything, whatever it takes," said Davalos.
The next day they visited Soto-Rodriguez and her daughter, whom she named Andrea, at the hospital, which provided a sense of relief, they said.
"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," said Beverly. "Once we knew they were safe and healthy, that was a moment of pride for us."
Soto-Rodriguez said she will tell her daughter that she is a "hero and an extremely brave girl" who "came ready to tackle this world."
The newborn will have some help doing that.
IDEA Public Schools, a Texas-based network of pre-K to high school public charter schools, announced it will give Andrea a college scholarship when she graduates high school from an IDEA school.
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