In 1993, Kasey Threlfall was born during Shepparton’s last big flood.
Last Sunday, October 16, Mrs Threlfall had to wade through floodwater onto an SES rescue boat while she was in labour.
Mrs Threlfall and her partner Jack decided to stay at their Aspendale Cres home, which was above floodwaters but cut off from the rest of Shepparton, as the Goulburn River began to rise two weeks ago.
However, despite a due date of November 30, Mrs Threlfall, who works as a midwife, said she “always had a feeling” the baby was going to arrive early.
Mrs Thelfall was able to go to a birthing class on Sunday morning, but by the afternoon, as the flooding situation turned and her home was cut off by flood waters, she went into labour.
Then everything clicked into gear. Mr Threlfall called paramedics, and his mother called to collect their first-born son Oscar, aged two, before floodwaters rose.
“I knew things were starting to happen. I didn't want to be stranded with Oscar,” Mrs Threlfall said.
“Then Jack got off the phone. He was like, ‘we have to go right now. We need to pack our stuff and go’. And I’m like, ‘what do you mean?’ I wasn’t fully prepared.”
With floodwaters around the streets near the family home, including Wanganui Rd, there would be no guarantee the couple would be able to get to the hospital safely.
“We were told that if we didn’t go now there’s no guarantee that we would be able to be picked up by an ambulance,” she said.
A neighbour drove them to Wanganui Rd, and then from there they climbed onto the SES boat, and from there were picked up by Mrs Thelfall’s in-laws, and then stayed at their home in Zeerust overnight before transferring to Goulburn Valley Health the next morning.
“I think that the SES crew were absolutely amazing,” she said.
“I literally had to trudge through the floodwaters ... I was not prepared, and I had my birthing stockings on because I didn't think that my feet would get wet.”
On the boat, Mrs Threlfall realised she’d forgotten her birthing bag full of essential items for a new mother, but there was no going back.
Later that afternoon, her father-in-law canoed back to their home to pick up the birthing bag.
The following day at 5pm, their second child Ava was born weighing 3.4kg (7.5lb) at GV Health.
Mrs Threlfall said she was “super calm” during the ordeal despite normally being on the other end of delivering babies, and it was a big relief to her that Ava was delivered safely.
“The midwives that I had during labour, they knew how stressed I was coming in considering, you know, everything had changed. And they were amazing,” she said.
The mother and daughter spent three nights in hospital, and are now at home.
She said it was “crazy” to have gone through something similar herself.