The last thing Krystle Henry and Matt Bridges thought they would be dealing with in the hours before the birth of their son was a complex logistical problem caused by catastrophic flooding across the state of Queensland.
Roughly 24 hours before a scheduled caesarean at Brisbane’s Mater Mothers’ hospital, the family had woken up on Monday to find themselves cut off by flood waters.
Though their two-year-old daughter had been thrilled at the unfolding crisis, Bridges said the water came as a shock.
“The floods really snuck up on us,” he said. “There was heavy rain on Saturday night, then we went to get coffee – our last as a family of three – on Sunday morning.
“We went to the bottom of the road and it was cut off. On both ends.”
At first, Bridges wasn’t worried. Parts of Brisbane are prone to flash flooding but the water usually recedes when the rain eases.
But on Monday the rain hadn’t eased, the water was higher and news reports made clear a catastrophe was unfolding across the state.
Henry’s obstetrician suggested she head into the hospital a day early to make sure she safely made her appointment, good advice which was unfortunately easier said than done.
Bridges called the State Emergency Services and the family was put on a rescue list, but were a low priority as no one’s life was immediately at risk.
With emergency rescue teams spread thin, the couple hatched a plan to make their appointment.
The first step involved coordinating with Bridges’ dad, who was in Brisbane. He was tasked with renting a car to get as close to Taringa – a suburb 6.8km south-west of the city – as possible.
Then the question became how Henry would get to Bridges’ dad.
Swimming or walking through the dirty flood water wasn’t option for the expectant mother. Driving into flood water is extremely dangerous and neither was it possible for her to climb fences.
The safest option was to paddle out.
When Bridges put the word out among neighbours for anyone with a boat or a watercraft to help, everyone on their block began to pull together to organise Henry a ride, and someone to look after the couple’s daughter while they sorted things out.
“One of our neighbours have older grandkids, so they have toys they don’t play with any more,” Bridges said.
“When we dropped my daughter at our neighbour’s place, she didn’t look at us. [She] threw up a hand, said ‘bye’ and ran off to play with the toys. She wasn’t nearly as worried as mum and dad were.”
Meanwhile, one neighbour, Clare, had found another neighbour, Rob, with a motorised kayak.
“I saved his name in my phone as ‘Rob Kayak’ and he saved my name as ‘Matt Pregnant’, Bridges said. “It’s amazing. All he said is he was just happy to help out.”
Loaded into the kayak, Henry was ferried off to meet Rob’s dad two streets away, who then took her by car to her appointment.
Later that evening, Bridges’ mum was able to come in to look after the couple’s daughter so he could join Henry at the hospital Monday evening – this time by jumping three fences – and be there for the birth of their son on Tuesday morning.
While they considered alternative names such as “Royce”, the couple decided to name their son Angus.
With several lives lost and people having everything they own destroyed in the floods, Bridges said the couple are deeply grateful for the kindness of their community which made their “little adventure” go without complication.
“You get these baby books that you document milestones in,” Bridges said. “For the birth story, they only give you two lines.”
“Krystle was joking saying we were going to need a few more lines on that book.”
