Mum left heartbroken after awaking to discover her newborn baby dead next to her
Lauren Jordan, 23, had put her baby in the parental bed for a cuddle but fell asleep and found him dead by her side
Debbie King
Sophie Finnegan
Harrison (right) before his tragic death with parents Lauren and Kieran (left)
A devastated mum has issued a warning to other parents after she slept beside her newborn baby and awoke to find him dead next to her.
Lauren Jordan, 23 had placed her son Harrison on the parental bed for a cuddle and had intended to put him back in his cot.
The exhausted mum from Crowborough however, fell asleep alongside her partner, Kieran Jones, 22.
When Lauren awoke several hours later, she discovered her baby wasn't breathing.
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Kent Live reported: "I could just tell from his colour that he was not breathing - he was not warm - but he was not cold," the mother-of-four said during his inquest yesterday (October 4).
"I just knew and I started shouting no, no. At that point I woke Kieran up."
Miss Jordan said the couple, from Kent, had fed Harrison two bottles of milk - one earlier on in the evening and one later around 10.30pm on June 3 this year.
But the little boy refused to settle - so they decided to bring him in between them while they watched television until he fell asleep.
"I woke up at about 4 to 4.20am. I looked into his cot as I was pretty sure I had dozed off before Kieran and I thought he would have put him back.
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But he was not there and then I looked over at Kieran and he was in exactly the same position as when he fell asleep and Harrison was in the middle on his back," she said.
The coroner's court in Maidstone heard how the couple had fought to save their son with Mr Jones attempting CPR for up to 15 minutes before handing over to paramedics.
But despite their efforts Harrison was declared dead at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in the early hours of June 4.
Assistant coroner for Mid Kent and Medway, Scott Matthewson said the couple had had a chance to say goodbye in what was a "very sad case."
He said evidence from pathologist, Dr Mudher Al-Adrani had led him to conclude Harrison's was accidental.
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Dr Al-Adrani told the court Harrison was the victim of "unexplained death in infancy" but it was "possible he had either been smothered by his sleeping parents or their warm bodies had caused his body temperature to rise.
He said for "some reason this can lead to a baby's death"
Summing up, Mr Matthewson said this "heartbreaking case" was a warning to all parents not to take their babies into their bed.
It was a message that needed repeating time and again, he added.
Speaking to Kent Live after the inquest, Miss Jordan, also issued a plea to parents to put babies in their own cots.
"We did not intend to fall asleep with him – but we were exhausted and it just happened.
"Sometimes it is nice to get that bond. But people need to speak out to stop this happening to other parents," she said.