It was just after 11pm on a cold April night in 2025 when 29-weeks pregnant Chelsea Hayes felt pain shoot through her body.
It was the second scare that day – she and husband Brenten had already been to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital after similar pain in the morning.
Brenten pulled out of the driveway, ready for another 30-minute drive, worried about his wife and his soon-to-be baby.
“We made it six kilometres down the road from our house,” Chelsea says, “and I told Brenten I’ve got to get out the car. Got to get out the car now.”
“He pulled over to the service station on Glass House – I got out of the car, and I was like, oh no, we’re fine and got back in the car and told him to get back in as well. By the time he walked from the passenger side to the driver’s side I was out of the car again, and by the time he got around to me, Amara was delivered.
“The only reason we know what time she was born is the call to triple zero was made at 11:20pm. Brenten was literally dialling the number as she was born.”
The night was not over.
“Amara was born in her sac, so I had to rupture it,” Chelsea says. “Coincidentally, I had redone my neonatal, basic life support at work not even two weeks before – I just went straight into work mode and cleared the airways (Chelsea works in healthcare).”
The ambos were on the way – but it would still be 20 minutes before they arrived.
“We just kept her stimulated and watched her colour, not letting her doze off. Anytime she dozed off we’d stimulate her to keep her with us,” she says.
“We tried to keep her warm as much as we could.
“Because Brenten’s a painter we had brand new microfibre rags, so we grabbed as many of them as we had in the car and wrapped her up. My clothes were wrapped around her as well. I was pretty much in nothing, and Brenten had almost nothing on, and it was freezing cold.
“We were lucky that she was warm, but not too warm, because it actually prevented her having a massive bleed on her brain. She was still attached to the umbilical cord and the placenta, which also kept her alive.
“I sent Brenten to the servo, covered in blood; to get towels – I think the poor girls in the servo thought he’d murdered someone. He came out with a jumper, and he was keeping me warm because I was bleeding out on the side of the road after a placental abruption.”
The ambos arrived – they lifted Chelsea on to a stretcher, allowed Brenten to cut the umbilical cord, and wrapped his newborn daughter in a plastic bag to keep her warm.
“It was the fastest trip from the Glass House Mountains to SCUH that I’ve ever had,” Chelsea says. “It was about 10 minutes.”
In that time, Amara was given two intraosseous needles in her shins to gain emergency access and deliver adrenaline into bone marrow to provide critical resuscitation.
It was the end of one journey and the beginning of another.
Hospital staff put ID bands on, and baby and daughter were sent in different directions – Amara to neonatal to be stabilised and Chelsea to theatre to give birth to the placenta. Leaving Brenten left to run between the two wards.
The family was reunited later in the day – but neither parent could hold their baby for another week as she was too delicate.
It would be another eight weeks before Amara left NICU, undergoing numerous medical procedures to build up her strength so she could go home.
The miracle baby from Beerburrum is now approaching her first birthday and all her health tests are looking good.
There are never enough hours in the day when you are looking after a baby approaching her first birthday, but Chelsea and Brenten didn’t hesitate when asked to be this year’s Ambassadors for Wishlist Giving Day which will raise funds to buy vital equipment for the neonatal unit.
“We got very close to the team at the Neonatal Unit,” Chelsea says.
“They went above and beyond for us.
“And for two nights we used the Wishlist rooms in the neonatal unit, so we roomed without any medical support. It was nice to be able to use those rooms and be a family.
“They’re a phenomenal bunch of people that really cared. They don’t just look after the baby; they look after the family.”
Brenten says it’s nice to be ambassadors.
“It’s quite out of our wheelhouse. We’re normally just quiet people. It’s a chance for us to do something good. It’s something really good to come out of a bad situation,” he says.
“I guess it’s you don’t realise it can happen to you. It’s scary but humbling.
“We’d already been through a lot together as a couple, but it’s definitely solidified it.”
Chelsea agreed.
“It definitely did, made us a family,” she says.
FAST FACTS
- Wishlist is your local hospital charity, supporting Nambour, Caloundra, Maleny, Gympie and Sunshine Coast University hospitals.
- Since 1998, with community support, Wishlist has directed over $25 million into local healthcare.
- Wishlist Giving Day, March 26, is the one day of the year when donations are doubled, thanks to generous corporate matchers.
- Whether you’re a business, health staff, school or individual there’s plenty of ways to get involved. Visit wishlist.org.au
DONATIONS ARE DOUBLED ON GIVING DAY
Wishlist Giving Day is the biggest fundraiser of the year for your local hospital charity.
Donations are doubled on the day of the event due to generous business matchers.
On March 26, the Sunshine Coast will have 12-hours of non-stop fun with the Sunshine Coast University, Nambour, Caloundra and Maleny hospitals all to host fundraisers.
The proceeds will go towards a vital paediatric cardiology ultrasound and non-invasive CO2 monitoring machine that will help tiny hearts be cared for right here on the coast.
The ultrasound will save hundreds of Sunshine Coast babies from travelling to Brisbane for treatment, and two non-invasive CO2 monitoring machines, that will mean most babies won’t have to get needles for blood tests.
SCUH director of neonatology Dr Lizelle Weber says the equipment will keep critically ill newborn babies close to their families.
“The big reason we’re after this cardiology ultrasound is that we have about 1200 children who travel from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane yearly for the cardiac investigations and follow up,” Dr Weber says.
“The long-term aim with getting this piece of equipment is standing up a service for those kids to be seen locally.
“The paediatric cardiac echo machine is an ultrasound that we can use, not only for cardiac investigations in children, but also for other ultrasound other investigations on our wards, like cranial ultrasounds.”
