Demise of mother and still born baby: causes?

Dear Ask The Doctor: My niece was 36weeks and all was fine, she began to fell labor pains, and wnet to the er, they admitted her however when they did the ultrasound, the baby had no heart beat. all her labs were fine and she had seen the ob 3 days prior, every was ok and there were no red flags going off on the labs for concern what could have happened.? to make thing ever worse, she gave birth to the baby gril 4lbs 3 oz (stillborn) and her health then became complicated, she was given a blood traansfusion for a large loss of blood, adn was stabalized ( bp and pulse was very low) 3 hours we recieveds a call of urgency to go back to the hosp. she had gone into cardiac arrest and was bleeding heavily she arrested 3x, end result she also passed away. what do you think might have happened.. are there any diagnosis or conditions that may have caused this situation??

Dear Ivette: I am so sorry for your loss and my condolences for your family which is going through such a difficult and sad time. It is extremely difficult to say what exactly may have lead to the still born baby and the untimely death of your niece without knowing the entire history and test results. However since you said that everything was ok 3 days prior to all these events it makes me believe that there was some acute event that took place all of a sudden. This could have been a placental problem ( for eg when the placenta is not in the proper position as where it should be then that leads to complications) or it  could have been decreased blood supply to the baby due to certain reasons. It is difficult to say. However I advice you to talk to the doctors involved with the case and ask for details about the same. Again I am so sorry for your loss.