“I had never been afraid of labor before but with this pregnancy, I was,” Samantha shared. As she prepared to welcome her fifth baby, that feeling only grew stronger. The morning she left for the hospital, she was so nervous she left a note for her boys: “I love you… just in case I didn’t come home.”
After being induced, what started as a normal delivery quickly turned into an emergency. “Instead of a baby, I started bleeding… I was being rushed for an emergency C-section.” Samantha experienced a placental abruption and severe complications, losing a significant amount of blood as doctors worked quickly to save both her and her baby.
“I remember whispering ‘I love you’ to my husband before they rushed me away,” she said. “I was praying for both of us to make it.”
Her baby boy was delivered safely, but Samantha needed lifesaving transfusions. “The blood I received during surgery saved my life,” she shared. Even the next day, she was too weak to hold or name her son, until she received more blood. “As soon as those units went in, it was like I had been given a superpower.”
Because of blood donors, Samantha gained the strength to hold her baby, name him, and begin her recovery. Just days later, she was able to go home to the family who needed her most.
“To blood donors everywhere: thank you for giving me my life, my children their mom, and my husband his wife.”
 

Makayla never expected her daughter’s birth to become a life-or-death emergency.
On February 23, 2024, what should have been a joyful day quickly turned traumatic when she experienced a placental abruption. Living in Detroit Lakes, Makayla had to be life flighted to Fargo as doctors worked urgently to save both her and her baby. During the emergency, Makayla required a unit of blood. Her daughter would go on to need several more.
“You never think you’ll be in a life or death position, and having blood makes the difference,” Makayla said.
Her daughter’s journey did not end after delivery. In the NICU, complication after complication meant more procedures and more transfusions. With each procedure, a bead was added to a string given to Makayla to track her daughter’s fight. By the end, it stretched seven feet long.
“We’ve never given a baby this much blood,” Makayla recalls being told.
Through it all, her daughter kept fighting and overcoming each challenge placed in front of her.
Makayla now shares her story with deep gratitude for blood donors and a clearer understanding of the ongoing need. “A unit might seem like not much, but it’s needed to save lives,” she said. “It wasn’t a one and done transfusion for my daughter.”
Her experience changed her perspective forever. “Until you’re in that position, you don’t really understand the need.”

Kristin was asleep in bed in the middle of the night when her water broke. Several minutes later she started having a seizure and losing blood. Her husband called the paramedics, and she was rushed to the hospital where she needed an emergency C-section. She suffered from a rare but life-threatening pregnancy complication called an Amniotic Fluid Embolism, and she needed 26 blood transfusions to save her life. When Kristin woke up in the ICU 48 hour later, the first thing she said to her husband was “why are all of these people in our bedroom?” 
 
“I’m just grateful for every moment that I get to be here,” Kristin said. “There are so many people to thank. The paramedics, my husband for calling 911, the doctor that was on-call, but I truly would not be here today if it weren’t for blood donors. I had a massive hemorrhage where I was bleeding out and I would not be alive if those 26 units had not been on the shelf when I arrived at the hospital.” Pregnancy complications like Kristin’s are why we Donate for Mothers.