10 September, 2013 3:16PM AEST

Donate blood for 'someone like me'

Katherine Agius was in hospital for a routine birth until the unthinkable happened.

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Just moments after giving birth to a healthy baby boy, Katherine's husband was forced to make some tough decisions.

She says the experience was traumatic for her whole family.

"I was conscious after the caesarean but then I just remember getting a bit cold and then feeling very nauseous and sick and everything is a bit of a blur after that," she says.

"You knew something was wrong when the doctor stops talking and they ask for your husband to come back into the room and they leave and have a chat, so I knew something was going on then."

Katherine says she was in and out of consciousness after the birth and wasn't aware of what her husband was going through.

"I guess that's something that I find really hard to talk about even with him because I just don't know what he went through," she says.

"We ended up going to counselling afterwards but it was a real shock for him because one minute he was bathing our baby and the next thing the doctor is there saying well this is what's happening, we're going to lose her if we don't give her blood and also I ended up having a hysterectomy as well.

"He had to make the decision that I can't have anymore children which was really quite daunting for him and he was really scared that he was going to lose me and he'd have to bring up two boys on his own.

"I think he copped the full force of it and even to this day, it's still a hard topic to talk about with each other."

Katherine lost a huge amount of blood after the birth of her child, which was replaced by donor blood.

She says words can't express how thankful she is to the donors who kept her alive.

"They're amazing people that do this, that give blood," says Katherine.

"I know there are people out there that have donated over 300 times and that in itself is just amazing because that's thousands of lives saved.

"And I know without people donating blood I wouldn't be here today.

"My husband wouldn't have a wife, my two boys wouldn't have a mum so it's because of them that I'm here."

She says 12 months after her ordeal, she walked into her local blood bank to donate.

"As soon as that year was up, I was here in that chair giving blood and I guess I felt really selfish because I got all this blood and I'd never donated before," she says.

"I knew it was needed, I knew it was a really great thing to do but it wasn't on my radar until something like this happened and I now know the importance of giving blood and plasma."

Katherine says she's scared of needles but donating is 'a walk in the park.'

"I always thought it was for trauma victims or car crash victims, I never once thought it would be a mum giving birth," says Katherine.

"I never thought it would just be someone like me.

"You can only donate every 12 weeks and I wish it could be more so you could actually give them as much as they've given me."

Currently one in three people will require blood in their lifetime but only one in 30 donates.

Just one donation can save as many as three lives.

For more information, head to the Australian Red Cross website.