A baby tragically died less than a month after being born when her mother fell asleep breastfeeding and awoke to find her baby partially beneath her unresponsive.

An inquest today at Exeter’s County Hall heard how single mum Daria Laskos gave birth to her first child on March 3, at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital.

Iga was described as a healthy baby who was breastfed on demand, but before her death had started to suffer with wind which would keep them both awake as she struggled to settle.

Two nights before her death, they both had got very little sleep and when Iga awoke the following night crying in a cot next to her bed and wouldn’t settle back down, Daria told in a statement how she took her downstairs and put the television on while she sat on the sofa and breastfeed her.

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“She appeared to want to feed so I sat at the end of sofa with my arm against the back rest,” she said. “I don’t know if I fell asleep. I think she fell asleep while I was breastfeeding.

“I woke up later that morning lying with my right side against the back of the sofa and could see Iga partially underneath me with her face towards me.”

She added: “I could see straight away she was not breathing and her face was a purple colour.”

In panic, Daria told of how she initially rang a friend instead of 999, but an ambulance was then promptly called at about 9.30am on March 30, and she carried out CPR until they arrived.

Iga was then pronounced dead.

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Daria recalled how she moved from Poland to the UK five years before her baby was born and was a care worker.

She visited Poland every three months and during one visit she unexpectedly fell pregnant with her boyfriend who sadly never got to meet his child.

The inquest heard Daria smoked throughout her pregnancy, but her baby was born healthy and they lived together at a house she moved into in North Tawton three months prior.

Recalling those first couple of weeks, she said: “Iga was a quiet baby and generally slept well for six hours at a time in a cot in the bedroom, on the sofa in the living room or in her bouncer.”

She continued: “I found it tiring, but I was still very happy to be a mother. Towards the end of March, Iga started to have wind which would keep her and me awake. I think sometimes she fed too quick.”

Despite an extensive post-mortem examination and additional investigations, no natural or unnatural cause of death could be found.

Dr Debbie Cook noted the dangers of co-sleeping, but confirmed the cause of death was unascertained.

She said: “Daria fell asleep with her baby in her arms. Co-sleeping on a sofa, there is an association with a risk of overlaying, and the risk is high where a parent is extremely tired.”

A statement from Daria’s friend Ed Dominey, who she rang after waking up and finding Iga unresponsive, described how much she had enjoyed becoming a mother.

He said: “Since she was born, Daria has been like a different person. She was happy and blossomed, and doted on her and everything she did.”

He added Daria had told him Iga had been ‘playing up’ because of wind but said as she was so independent she did not take him up on his offer to get some sleep while he looked after Iga.

He said: “Daria looked absolutely shattered and said she needed to get some sleep.”

A statement from a health visitor who went to Daria's home on two occasions confirmed she had been spoken to about safe sleeping, breastfeeding and smoking, and there had been no concerns about her or the baby.

Recording an open conclusion, coroner Philip Spinney said: “It simply means the evidence does not fully disclose the means whereby the cause of death arose.”