Nov, 2026
Nowhere to stay and a baby undergoing critical care in hospital: How donors helped keep the Rice family together.
It wasn’t the holiday Allanah and her partner David had planned with their two-year-old son Elijah before the arrival of their second child.
One last trip as a family of three to the Gold Coast took an unexpected turn, when Allanah was rushed into emergency delivery of baby Willow. A delivery that wasn’t expected for at least another 7-weeks.
Tiny and fighting, baby Willow required specialist respiratory support in NICU to help her fragile lungs develop.
With baby Willow not due until mid-November, the family looked forward to a week making memories together before becoming a family of four.
Instead, just days after arriving, Allanah woke with severe swelling, headaches and vision changes that had steadily worsened throughout the week.
Concerned, she made her way to Gold Coast University Hospital, expecting a check-up and reassurance.
Instead, scans revealed Willow was much smaller than expected, her fluid levels were low, and Allanah had developed severe pre-eclampsia.
“They checked my blood pressure and told me, ‘You’re not going anywhere,'” Allanah said.
In an instant, the family holiday was over. The most important thing was ensuring Willow would survive.
At just 33 weeks pregnant and hundreds of kilometres from home, Allanah suddenly found herself in a hospital bed, unprepared, and uncertain about what would happen next.
Doctors admitted her for close monitoring. The goal was simple, keep both mum and baby safe for as long as possible.
Every extra day Willow remained in the womb lowered her chance of complications after birth.
For the next two days, Allanah waited anxiously.
“I was freaking out,” she said.
“When we had Elijah, he was a 35-weeker, and I remember he was just so tiny and frail. The thought that Willow might be even smaller was terrifying”.
Initial scans showed some stabilisation and Allanah felt relieved that there was more time.
Then everything changed again. Allanah could no longer feel Willow moving normally, prompting doctors to determine they could no longer wait.
“All of a sudden I was being told, ‘You’re having a baby today,'” Allanah said.
“I was not prepared”.
Just hours earlier, doctors had been hoping to get her to at least 34-weeks. Unfortunately, that was not going to be possible.
Now, family members who had been out buying essentials for what was expected to be a lengthy hospital stay were being urgently called back to the hospital.
As plans changed around her, Allanah struggled to process just how quickly everything was unfolding.
“It was awful. Feeling like you’re not in control of your body, just wishing and hoping things are going to be okay”.
Within a matter of hours, the waiting was over.
At 33 weeks and three days gestation, Willow was delivered via emergency caesarean section.
“When she was born, I just started crying and asking, ‘Is she alive?'” Allanah said.
“I genuinely didn’t think she was going to make it. It was horrifying.”
Weighing less than 1.5 kilograms, baby Willow entered the world fragile and vulnerable. Instead of spending those first precious moments in her parents’ arms, she was rushed into the care of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) team for close monitoring – her life depended on it.
Too fragile to be held, baby Willow’s first days were spent in NICU, where a gentle touch was all her family could offer.
Tiny and fighting hard, Willow needed immediate specialist support. Tubes, wires and monitors surrounded her as health staff worked to stabilise her condition, carefully tracking every heartbeat, breath and oxygen level.
“For probably the first week that we were in NICU, every single day I’d come in and ask, ‘Is she still alive?'” Allanah said.
“I was just so worried that she wasn’t going to be okay.”
Willow spent weeks receiving specialist neonatal care, including respiratory support to help her breathe while her tiny lungs continued to develop.
Thanks to the generosity of the community, Willow was able to receive care with the support of a Gold Coast Hospital Foundation-funded Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine, which helped keep her airways open and supported her breathing during those critical early weeks of life.
As the days passed, Willow remained in NICU, where doctors and nurses carefully monitored her progress and celebrated each small step forward.
For Allanah and David, life quickly became a cycle of hospital visits, pumping schedules, feeding times and anxious waits for updates.
Yet as they came to terms with their daughter’s early arrival, another reality was sinking in fast.
They weren’t supposed to still be on the Gold Coast.
What was meant to be a week-long holiday had suddenly become an indefinite stay far from home, with no certainty around how long Willow would need to remain in hospital.
Their accommodation was running out, their savings were disappearing, and home was more than 700 kilometres away.
“We’d pretty much blown through all our money at that point,” Allanah said.
“We had accommodation until the Saturday,” Allanah said. “But after that, we had no idea what we were going to do. We were panicking”.
Yet leaving was never a consideration.
Willow was still fighting through critical days in NICU, and every moment with her mattered.
Then the family discovered Gold Coast Hospital Foundation’s Emergency Accommodation Support service.
“It was such a relief. Suddenly, we didn’t have to worry about where we were going to stay. We could just focus on Willow.”
“We honestly don’t know what we would have done without it.”
Precious cuddles with Willow, made possible by a place to stay nearby.
The support meant they could remain close to Willow throughout her NICU journey, without the overwhelming burden of trying to find and fund accommodation hundreds of kilometres from home.
“It’s been the best we could ask for,” Allanah said. “The hotel is walking distance. Even when I was recovering from my C-section, it was only about a ten-minute walk.”
“It meant that it didn’t matter what time of the day or night it was, I could come and be with her. That is priceless.”
For the next 5 weeks, life revolved around hospital visits, pumping schedules, feeding times and waiting.
Waiting for updates. Waiting for milestones. Waiting for the day they could finally take Willow home.
“I’d wake up, come to the hospital, spend all day here, go back to the hotel, sleep, pump, wake up and do it all again,” Allanah said.
“It’s been really, really hard.”
While Willow’s breathing gradually improved, new challenges soon emerged. She developed a feeding intolerance, meaning her tiny body struggled to digest milk properly.
“Every time she’d be fed, she’d either bring it back up or it would just sit in her stomach,” Allanah said.
“Sometimes they’d aspirate and it would come back this bright green colour, and she became really unwell.”
At times, Willow became so unwell her care team had to stop feeds altogether to allow her gut to rest.
Because she could not tolerate milk, clinicians inserted a Gold Coast Hospital Foundation-funded Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) line, allowing vital nutrition and fluids to be delivered directly into her bloodstream while her tiny body recovered.
Slowly but surely, Willow began to turn a corner.
“Getting the PICC line out. Getting the CPAP off. Starting suck feeds,” Allanah said.
“Every time we weigh her and she’s put on weight, it’s a relief. There were a lot of days early on where she just kept losing weight. That was hard.”
As the weeks passed, the family celebrated milestone after milestone. Willow had her first bath. She wore her first outfit. Her big brother, Elijah, finally got to hold her for the very first time.
“Yesterday Elijah got his first cuddle with her,” Allanah said.
“Just all those little milestones. They mean so much to us.”
One month old, and in big brother Elijah’s arms at last.
For Allanah, being able to witness those moments is something she’ll never take for granted, and she is forever thankful to those who made it possible.
Reflecting on the support her family received during one of the most difficult periods of their lives, she has a heartfelt message for the people whose generosity made it possible.
“Just thank you so much,” she said.
“It honestly doesn’t go unnoticed. We’re going to start donating ourselves because we’ve seen how much of a difference it makes.”
Allanah hopes others will consider supporting families facing similar circumstances this Christmas.
“You never know when you’re going to be in that situation,” she said. “We certainly never thought we’d end up in one like this.”
“You don’t plan for medical emergencies. You don’t plan to have a premature baby hundreds of kilometres from home. But it happens.
“And when it does, you need resources and support there for you.”
Now, after more than five weeks, Willow has been discharged from Gold Coast University Hospital and transferred to a hospital closer to home. It is a milestone that once felt impossibly far away.
This Christmas, you can help make a meaningful difference for more families like Willow’s.
When every second counts, your donation can help keep a baby breathing, a family together and hope alive during some of life’s most difficult moments.
Please donate here.