“As a mother, I didn’t think twice. I only wanted to help her,” the officer, Helen Valerio, said during a ceremony honoring her actions

Helen Valerio of Brazil’s military police (right).Credit : 

Policia Militar de Minas Gerais

A military police officer in Brazil breastfed a hungry baby after her parents allegedly abandoned her in a sewer drain.

“She was covered in dirt and very hungry. As a mother, I didn’t think twice. I only wanted to help her,” the officer, Helen Valerio, said during a recent ceremony honoring her actions, per a video shared by Brazil’s Military Police on Instagram.

The Military Police noted that Valerio’s actions “saved a life” in the post’s translated caption.

The recent incident occurred in the city of Ibirité on Feb. 19, according to a translated statement from Brazil’s Civil Police obtained by PEOPLE.

The child’s mother and father, both 22, were detained and questioned by police, per the statement. The father was ultimately arrested on a charge of child abuse and the mother was charged with both child abuse and abandonment of a minor.

Child protective services were notified of the incident, and “the child was taken for medical care at the time,” per Civil Police.

They further noted that an investigation is ongoing.

Security footage of the incident shows the mother and father seemingly in an argument, according to the Daily Star. The mother can be seen placing the infant in a sewer drain, when a passerby intervenes to help the child, per the outlet.

Staff at a local medical center found that the infant was both dehydrated and hungry, but there was no formula available, according to the Daily Star. Because of this, doctors authorized emergency breastfeeding.

Valerio, who had given birth months earlier and was still lactating, heard about the situation and made her way to the hospital to help provide the infant with life-saving nourishment, per the outlet.