Emmanuel Olubayo could only watch helplessly as Emma, a nursing team leader, collapsed from an undetected heart defect and died in the home they shared in Leicestershire.
Paramedics tried for an hour to resuscitate the 41-year-old before performing a rare posthumous delivery.
They carried out an emergency Caesarean section on the living room floor last November, Leicestershire Live reports.
The couple's baby girl Aretha was delivered alive then taken to hospital.
Emmanuel said he was shocked to become a father and a widower on the same day.
The 35-year-old education consultant said: “It is hard and I don’t really know how I am coping as single dad but I am.
“I have to be strong for Aretha. One day I will tell her all about her mother and how wonderful she was.”
He said he believed his wife of eight months, whose heart suddenly stopped, had battled on to give their daughter Aretha the chance to live.
Aretha was born 10 weeks prematurely and was taken to hospital where she was cared for by members of the team that Emma led – the critical care outreach team which covers Glenfield Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital.
Emmanuel, who was living in Birmingham, told how he and Emma fell in love after meeting in an internet dating chat room.
“I knew when I started chatting to Emma online that she was special," he said. "We had an immediate connection.
“We got on really well and arranged to meet after three weeks chatting.”
The pair had their first date at the Parcel Yard pub in Leicester in May 2016 before tying the knot 8 months to her death.
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