Rachel Standfest deserves an award for mother of the year.
When the barnhouse that the Michigan native and her husband Travis Standfest were staying in caught fire last May, Rachel jumped from a second-story window to escape—despite being 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 published May 23. “And that’s the last thing I remember for probably two weeks.”
And while the courageous move saved her and her baby’s life, the 26-year-old admitted that her only thought at the time was “fight or flight.”
“In the moment, I know I was scared,” Rachel explained. “I know both of us had a moment of, ‘Oh my word, is this it? Are we going to die?’ But I wasn’t scared to jump out because I knew that’s what we had to do to survive.”
After making the nearly 20-foot jump, Rachel was rushed to the hospital, where their daughter, Brynlee Rose, was born through an emergency C-section.