‘I was feeling pain in my stomach’: Laniene Cust’s car crash turns into baby joy

Laniene Cust was 33-weeks pregnant when she was in a nightmare car crash with a kangaroo. What happened next left her “confused and shocked”.

Baby Dallas is recovering in the NICU after having been born premature. Picture: GoFundMe

What was meant to be a pregnancy check-up after a nightmare car crash, turned into the birth of Laniene Cust’s fourth child.

“I was feeling pain in my stomach … I had been in an accident with a roo the week before,” the 24-year-old told The Advertiser.

The Bordertown mother attended Naracoorte Hospital to check the health of her unborn baby and before she left, the staff noticed something wasn’t quite right.

“They saw how swollen my feet were,” she said.

Medical staff took Ms Cust’s blood pressure every 15 minutes and it kept rising.

That’s when doctors told her to attend the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

“It went from a check-up to, ‘you’re delivering the baby this weekend’,” the mum-of-four said.

Laniene thought she was going for a check-up but she was sent to deliver her baby. Picture: GoFundMe

Laniene Cust gave birth to her fourth child, Dallas Henson, prematurely after being diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. Pictured with her partner Jacob and their children, Lucy Riosa, 6, Grayson Riosa, 3, and 13-month-old Annalise Henson. Picture: Supplied

Ms Cust was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a condition she had with two of her three previous pregnancies, but never as early as 34 weeks.

“I was very confused and shocked,” she said.

When Ms Cust arrived at the WCH in mid-March she was uncontrollably shaking and having trouble breathing.

“There were eight nurses in the room, all doing different things,” she said.

“I was so dizzy, I had no idea what was going on.”

Dallas Henson, is in the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, recovering. Picture: Supplied

The family, who is from Bordertown, is staying at Ronald McDonald House while Dallas recovers. Picture: Supplied

The next day, Ms Cust’s blood pressure was still dangerously high when she began labouring.

During her labour she stayed stuck at four centimetres dilated. Doctors even began discussing the possibility of a C-section.

“I wanted to try and deliver naturally,” Ms Cust said.

Ms Cust had the epidural and sat upright to “see if the baby would come down and put pressure on (her) cervix”.

“Five seconds later he was here, in two pushes,” she said.

“It went from four centimetres to him being born.”

Dallas is connected to a breathing machine as his lungs continue to develop. Picture: GoFundMe

Dallas was born after two pushes from Laniene. Picture: Supplied

After some time holding her baby – a son named Dallas – he was transferred to the NICU to be connected to a breathing machine, because his lungs were not fully developed.

He remains in hospital as he continues to recover.

Ms Cust is also taking medication and doctors have told her she is at higher risk of developing blood pressure and cardiac issues when she’s older.

“I think the scariest part as well, is because me and my partner, grew up in foster care, we didn’t have a strong support system around us,” she said.

“It’s always just me and him and the kids, so before I went into labour, I snapchatted every family member that I knew, asking at least one person to come down and support us and it ended up being one of my old foster carers that came down.

“I think being mostly alone and just having my partner was scary.”

If you’d like to donate to Dallas and his family you can here.

Originally published as ‘I was feeling pain in my stomach’: Laniene Cust’s car crash turns into baby joy