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A breastfeeding mother unexpectedly died with her baby in her arms.

A new mum was holding her baby in her arms when she slipped into unconsciousness and died.

Deanna Rose Gioia, 35, was breastfeeding her two-month-old daughter, Adrianna, when she called out to her husband, “I don’t feel well”.

“He ran into the room, but she was already unresponsive,” a close friend of the family, Michelle Paini, told Staten Island Live.

“She was in good health. She didn’t have complications giving birth. We don’t know what caused this.”

Deanna and her husband Richie. Source: Facebook

The New York woman was rushed to hospital but couldn't be saved, her heartbroken family is still waiting for the results of her autopsy to determine the cause of her death.

"Just like that, she was gone," her mother Debbie DiSalvatore said. "We did everything together."

Gioia married her "Prince Charming", her husband Richie in 2012.

The couple first met as teenagers while they were working part time at American supermarket chain Waldbaums.

"He was her Prince Charming. He would do anything for her. A love like that you don't see between two people. Everyone who was at their wedding said that to me," DiSalvatore said.

"I never saw two people so in love. He gave her anything she ever wanted. He made her life perfect."

The couple on their wedding day. Source: Facebook

The registered nurse was described as an "extremely hard worker" who did "every job she ever had with pride".

"She didn't realize she was a nurse all along. She always took care of everybody, including her grandfather," Piani said.

"She saw that the ER is like a family and the care they give is incredible. She saw staff there— all the doctors, all the nurses— what they did for people, and she wanted to do that."

A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money to Richie and Adrianna with a goal of $200,000.