'Indescribable shock': Auckland mum dies week after C-section birth from medical complications

Auckland woman Tammy Nathan-Belk died a week after giving birth via emergency C-section. Photo / Givealittle

A whānau is in "indescribable shock" after a 25-year-old woman died a week after giving birth.

Auckland woman Tammy Nathan-Belk gave birth to a baby girl via emergency C-section at the end of October. It was she and partner Troy's fourth child together.

But a week later her parents, Tania and Terry Belk, received the worst phone call ever that their "beautiful daughter" had passed away unexpectedly due to medical complications following the C-section.

Via a Givealittle page set up to cover costs following the tragedy, her aunty Emma Afa said the family was in "shock".

"The shock the whānau are all experiencing is indescribable.

"There are truly no words to explain the tremendous loss that Tammy's unexpected death brings."

Nathan-Belk's mother Tania told Stuff she was their "ray of sunshine".

"It's a huge, huge loss for us, she was our ray of sunshine, always there for us and we were always there for her."

The initial post mortem listed her cause of death as being due to ruptured acute appendicitis, Stuff reported.

Her health had "deteriorated rapidly" on the day of her death, and after an ambulance was called she had died on her way into the hospital, Belk told Stuff.

Afa said the Givealittle page had been established to provide financial help with the funeral expenses as well as the "burgeoning expenses" of raising four tamariki without their beloved māmā.

"It is our hope that the funds/koha raised from this page will bring some measure of financial relief during and immediately after this time of great sorrow to the whānau," she said.