SINGAPORE — A coroner's court on Thursday (Aug 1) opened an inquiry into the death of a one-month-old baby girl who had been discovered cold and unresponsive by her mother in September last year.

State Coroner Adam Nakhoda started by issuing a gag order on the identity of the baby and her family members, as there was a surviving sibling.

The baby was born to a Singaporean woman aged 28 or 29 in August last year.

According to the investigation officer who shared his report with the court, the mother was lying on the bed with the baby and her other daughter in the master bedroom on the night of Sept 20, 2023.

The woman breastfed her baby past midnight, before placing her against her body on the left side of the bed.

The woman fell asleep but woke up again to breastfeed. She covered herself with a blanket, but it did not cover the baby's head.

This changed at 4.29am when the mother adjusted her sleeping position. The blanket was pulled up and it covered the baby's face.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed that the baby was moving below the blanket up until 4.58am.

The mother woke up at about 6.50am and discovered that her baby was cold and unresponsive.

She immediately carried the child out of the bedroom and sought help from her mother-in-law, who was sleeping in the next room. The older woman instructed the baby's mother to call for an ambulance.

While waiting for paramedics to arrive, the mother performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on her baby, as guided by an operator on the phone.

The baby did not have any pulse or breathing when paramedics arrived. She was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital where she was pronounced dead that same morning.

The case was referred to the police as the cause of the baby's death was unknown.

An autopsy initially stated that the preliminary cause of death was cardiorespiratory failure pending further investigations, with no external injuries noted.

Fractures were later found on the baby's ribs, but these were consistent with coming from the CPR process.

The final cause of death was classified as "unascertained", with the autopsy showing no natural disease or injury causing or contributing to death.

The CCTV footage taken from the master bedroom was reviewed, but it was unclear if the mother had laid on top of her baby, as the child was mostly covered by the blanket.

The court heard that the baby had been warded briefly in hospital for an upper respiratory tract infection a few days before her death, but she had been discharged clinically well on Sept 16, 2023.

The mother did not raise any concern other than stating that the infant had previously suffered mild nose bleeds, which she thought was normal.

The coroner asked the investigation officer if the act of covering the baby's face with the blanket was involuntary.

The officer confirmed it, stating that the mother was asleep so she was not consciously pulling up the blanket.

The coroner then asked if the baby's face was facing or against the mother's thigh when the mother first lifted the blanket off and discovered her in the morning.

The investigation officer said that the baby's face was towards her mother, based on CCTV footage, but he could not confirm if the child's face was against her mother's thigh.

The coroner adjourned the case, saying that he would issue "more detailed findings for this case in view of the circumstances".

In previous coroner's inquiries, he had stressed on safe sleeping practices for babies. 

These included:

• Allowing the infant to sleep alone in a baby cot, using a firm mattress with no gaps between the mattress and cot rail
• Placing the baby on its back when sleeping
• Not placing loose items such as pillows and blankets around a sleeping infant. CNA