Rachel Standfest should be named Mother of the Year.
Rachel Standfest from Michigan and her husband Travis Standfest were living in a barn house that caught fire last May. To get out, Rachel jumped from a second-story window, even though she was 36 weeks pregnant.
“The last thing I remember is Travis punching out the screen window, and I could see my mom in the driveway yelling, ‘Get out now,'” Rachel told People in an interview that came out on May 23. “And that’s the last thing I remember for probably two weeks.”
The 26-year-old woman said that her only thought at the time was “fight or flight.” She did something brave that saved her life and the life of her baby.
Rachel said, “At the time, I know I was scared.” “I know we both had a moment when we thought, ‘Oh my word, is this it?'” Are we going to die? I wasn’t afraid to jump out, though, because I knew we had to keep going.
Rachel was taken to the hospital after the almost 20-foot jump, where their daughter Brynlee Rose was born through an emergency C-section.
“They made sure Brynlee was safe first, and then they did it in the trauma bay,” Rachel said. “They cut through a third-degree burn to do that, which they had never done before. They checked on Brynlee to make sure she was okay.” Once they took over, the trauma team started taking care of my burns.
After making sure their daughter was safe, the couple stayed in the hospital for 29 days to get better. Travis, 25, said doctors were “blown away” by how quickly they recovered.
“One of our surgeons practically jumped for joy the last time I saw him before my surgery,” Travis told People, “because he could not believe the speed of my recovery.”
There was more good news for the family than just that miracle. The doctors were surprised that Brynlee, who is now 11 months old, didn’t need to go to the newborn intensive care unit (NICU) after she was born. She was also not hurt in the house fire or by her mom’s injuries. One more thing: the baby’s name, which was chosen six months before she was born, means “burned clearing.”
In an Instagram post on June 8, Rachel said, “Her name is just one more way that God was able to show that his hand has been in this whole time.” “That he never left, and that he has always protected all of us.”
She said, “We are all alive and okay, and count our blessings daily.”
