A NORTH-EAST sleep expert has spoken out after a coroner warned of the dangers of parents sharing a bed with their baby.

Dr Helen Bell, director of the parent-infant sleep lab at the University of Durham, said half of new parents want to sleep with their babies and, as long as they take basic precautions, it should be safe.

Dr Bell was talking after the inquest of Liam Hosker, in Nottinghamshire, who was suffocated when his mother, Joanne, fell asleep on her settee with him in her arms.

Mrs Hosker had lost another son, Connor, who died as she lay along side him in bed two years earlier.

Dr Bell said: "A lot of mothers, particularly those breast-feeding, should curl up around their babies. The baby should be lying on its back on a flat mattress with no pillow.

"The parent will have their arm above the babies head and their knees tucked up below. Any blankets should be pulled up to the baby's waist and not cover it's face."

She said parents sleeping heavier than normal because they were drinking or on medication, should not sleep with their child.