A MOTHER whose baby died as the two of them slept on the sofa on Christmas Eve has been told that she will never know why her daughter lost her life.

Angela Shaw, 34, and her husband Martin, 40, had been trying for a baby for 12 years when she fell pregnant.

They were overjoyed when baby Hannah was born at Airedale Hospital, near Keighley, West Yorkshire, in October last year.

But at an inquest into Hannah's death they both wept as Angela recalled the moment she woke up and realised there was something was wrong.

The couple, of Cromwell Street, Foulridge, had seen friends in the village with Hannah and had got back in the early hours of the morning on Christmas Eve. Martin, a trainee driving instructor, went to bed and Angela stayed up to feed Hannah.

She told the inquest that after feeding and winding her she lay her down on her back on the sofa and lay down on the edge of the sofa next to her.

Angela, who had given up her job as an accounts clerk to become a full-time mum, said: "I was intending to take her up to her cot, but I fell asleep. When I woke up I had turned over. I turned back round and knew something was the matter."

She took her upstairs to Martin who tried to give her CPR while she called the ambulance.

Hannah was taken to Burnley General Hospital where staff tried to revive her, but there was nothing they could do.

Pathologist Dr Melanie Newbold, from the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, who carried out the post mortem examination told the inquest Hannah had died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, although no exact cause of death could be found.

Dr Newbold said: "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome means that the infant died suddenly and without cause. There is an increased incidence where the baby has slept with the parents and it is particularly high where it is not a bed, but a sofa or chair.

"We don't really know why that is and we can't say that this would not have happened if she had been in her cot."

Recording an open verdict the deputy coroner for East Lancashire Mark Williams told Angela and Martin that they should not feel that they had done anything wrong.

He said: "Hannah went to sleep and tragically didn't wake up. There is nothing you should feel responsible for because it is not known how she died."