Detroit mother of 2 dies after giving birth, leaving family stunned

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A 25-year-old mother died after giving birth to a baby girl - now the family is left trying to raise two young girls without their mom.

Two-year-old Aleah Sullivan tries to give her baby sister a pacifier - as dad Derrick cradles 2-week-old Ari in his arms. Precious children who will now grow up without mom Alona White, who died shortly after giving birth to Ari.

"I did not expect to get a call saying that my baby passed away," said Katina Ponder, Alona's mother.

Katina Ponder is Alona's mother.

"She was 25, perfectly healthy, I just don't know what went wrong," she said.

Ponder says Alona and Derrick brought Aleah over on March 7th, so they could go to Ascension St. John Moross for a C-section.

"She hugged me - she smiled - she was excited," Ponder said. "We went from being joyful to devastated."

Ari was born that afternoon and taken to the NICU. There is a photo of Alona a few hours after her C-section. Hours later she would get to nurse her infant daughter - but then Alona said she had a headache and was soon unresponsive.

"She went down for a CT scan and that's when they saw like a really large massive bleeding on the left side of her brain," Ponder said.

Alona had an emergency craniotomy - and was in the ICU for five days before she passed away.

"She only really got like an hour to spend with her - it's just so - it's so unfair that she was robbed of life like that - I just don't understand what happened," Ponder said.

And at just 2 years old, little Aleah doesn't understand either.

"Aleah and her had a bond like - out of this world - and she's been asking for her mommy," Ponder said.

Ponder says she's still waiting on autopsy results to determine what happened. She is grateful for the GoFundMe donations that will help lay Alona to rest at her funeral on Thursday. Additional donations will help raise the beautiful babies she's left behind.

"It's no amount of money that will bring her back and for these babies to live without their mother - no amount of money," she said.

A link to the GoFundMe can be found HERE.