A team of educational professionals at an elementary school in Texas enjoyed a unique bonding experience when a paraprofessional went into labor 10 weeks early and gave birth in a school bathroom.
According to KFDX, paraprofessional Paige Lockstedt wasn’t feeling well and was talking with L.I.F.E. teacher Ashley Strain about possibly going home early, when she needed to use the bathroom.
Strain explained, “Paige said she wasn’t feeling well, so I was trying to tell her to go home, and she started to walk to find [Principal Amy] Simmons, and I was like, ‘No, I’ll find Simmons. You go home. She said, ‘Well, I’m going to go to the bathroom,’ and she called me and said, ‘My water just broke.'”
Simmons and Strain raced to Lockstedt, called 911, and got her into a wheelchair and out in front of the school’s main entrance to wait for an ambulance to arrive. But it didn’t arrive quickly enough.
“Ms. Strain and I ran into the bathroom with Ms. Paige, and she delivered a very beautiful baby girl,” Simmons said. “We don’t know exactly what time, but not long—maybe five or six minutes after we got the call that her water broke. So, it all happened very fast.”
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First responders arrived at the school and took over the care of Lockstedt and her baby girl. Strain and Simmons went back to their usual jobs at the school.
“I don’t know,” said Strain, “it just feels surreal.”
Simmons agreed, “Surreal is really the only word that I can come up with to describe the whole situation. Like, never in a million years did I ever think I would have to do that at school. And I did, and I’m just glad that they’re okay and that they’re healthy and that they’re well taken care of.”
Lockstedt’s daughter weighed just two pounds and nine ounces and was taken to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit where she is said to be doing well. She may never know the exact time she was born, but she will always have a fun birth story to share.
