Shea Morrissey: ‘Co-sleeping’ warning after baby death

A coroner has issued a warning about the dangers of “co-sleeping” following the sudden death of a month-old baby in Whitehead, County Antrim.

Shea Morrissey died suddenly at his home at Chester Avenue in the town, a year ago.

The baby’s mother, Louise Lynn, told the inquest that she turned around in bed to find her baby lifeless.

She said: “I could see his hand, I could see his head. He was grey. I think I knew he was dead.”

Ms Lynn and her partner, Sam Morrissey, told the inquest how their baby had been suffering from a blocked nose and was not feeding normally for several days.

They explained how Mr Morrissey, who had been taking care of night-time feeding, eventually took his child from his cot and placed him on his chest in bed.

The inquest heard that baby Shea appeared to have rolled off his father’s chest, face-down onto the bed.

Giving evidence, the former pathologist for Regional Paediatrics in Northern Ireland, Dr Caroline Gannon, said this position could have obstructed his airways and the baby would not have had the strength to lift his head.

She said this position on the bed, along with issues related to his induced birth and the infection at the time of his death, would have been “overwhelming for his system”.

She also emphasised that he was a “very well cared for baby” whose death appeared to be “a dreadful accident”.

Dr Gannon told the inquest that the practice of exhausted parents bringing an unsettled new baby into bed with them in the middle of the night is extremely common.

In this case, she said “it was out of love and concern for their baby” and “was purely a terrible accident”.

The Coroner recorded a verdict in accordance with the evidence about the infection and “co-sleeping”.

He urged parents to be aware of guidelines on the issue available from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Extending sympathy to the infant’s parents, the coroner said “any parent will recognise that we have done exactly what Mr Morrissey did, without the tragic consequences”.

The coroner also commented on how police and pathology reports showed that baby Shea was “looked after properly and appropriately by his parents”.

He added: “I cannot begin to imagine the grief you have felt over the last year.”