Seven months ago, Anoushka Biradar was giving birth to her daughter, Aria, when "things went pear shaped" and she started losing a lot of blood. Donations of blood from 13 people was what saved her life.
However, New Zealand Blood Service is making an urgent call for donors to help save the lives of more people like Biradar.
But to make matters worse, this is the time of year when the number of people donating traditionally drops.
Biradar is one of the lucky ones, though. She was on TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning to talk about her ordeal in an appeal to restock blood banks.
Biradar said she had "a second chance" at life because of 13 people who donated.
"It's huge, it's something I'll never be able to repay back."
She said those generous Kiwis allowed her to be a mum.
"I gave birth to her and that was all good and then I got to hold her for two minutes afterwards which was the best time of my life and then things went pear shaped - my body was not behaving the way it was supposed to behave after you give birth."
Biradar described how her organs were not contracting and going back to their own place, instead getting filled with blood. At the same time, her blood wasn't clotting properly causing her to lose blood.
"At one end I was listening to Aria's measurements going on, like how long she is and what her weight is and everything else, and on the other end I had the doctor in front of me kind of getting a bit serious," she remembered.
"All I could see was they were measuring buckets after buckets [of blood] on the side."
However, Biradar said the one hour donors spent "actually gave me life and actually gave her [Aria] a parent - it's that big".
"Saving my life is big because that means I can be a mum and I can actually spend time with her.
"If that had not happened, then two minutes is all what we would have had of each other."
The Blood Service's Asuka Burge, also on Breakfast, said on average every 18 minutes someone needs blood - and while people over the summer are off doing other things, that need doesn't go away.
"One hour of their life giving blood gives actually a lifetime to someone else.
"They just don't know when people like Anoushka is going to need that blood."
There are about 30,000 appointments still available for people to donate.
People can find out if they're eligible at the New Zealand Blood Service website or on their app.
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