Hospital staff admitted yesterday that they had not checked up on an exhausted new mother left alone in a sideroom breastfeeding her baby, who later suffocated after the mother fell sleep.

A midwife and ward manager at Leeds General Infirmary said she was not aware of Unicef recommendations calling for half-hourly checks that were circulated to British hospitals two years ago.

Lisa Salmon, a journalist who was registered blind after a car accident a year earlier, woke to find her two-day-old son Conor limp last February.

An inquest in Leeds heard that she did not remember dozing off, but had been extremely tired after not sleeping for three days

Jaqueline Mullaney, senior midwife on duty at the time, told the West Yorkshire coroner David Hinchcliff: "Women in siderooms go there so they can get a good rest. They know they can buzz us if they want assistance. We don't want to annoy them with nurses coming in and out all the time."

The hearing continues.