THE parents of a baby who died seven hours after birth blame “serious errors” in their daughter’s care, despite a coroner ruling that the child died of natural causes.

Senniva Hirst was born at Salisbury District Hospital on November 10, 2015, but died just seven hours later at 11.30pm.

At a two-day inquest last month, Senniva’s parents Lisa and Chris Hirst, of Fordingbridge, raised concerns that midwives had failed to act in the first hour of Senniva’s life, when she was cold, blue and struggling to breathe normally.

During the inquest, coroner David Ridley said there had been a failure by hospital staff as “those in the delivery room should have, given the way Senniva was presenting herself, sought early paediatric assistance”.

But on Thursday he concluded she had died of natural causes, after she was found to have pneumonia during a post-mortem.

The inquest previously heard that a pathologist had been unable to confirm whether Senniva had been born with the infection or whether she developed it after birth, as the placenta had not been kept by the hospital.

“It was more likely than not that the pneumonia infection was well established at the time Senniva was delivered, despite there being no obvious signs in her mother,” Mr Ridley said on Thursday.

And he said the infection would have delayed Senniva starting to breathe normally.

Mr and Mrs Hirst said the loss of the placenta, and a lack of tests carried out after their daughter was born, were “vital information that might have helped us better understand what happened to Senniva”.

In a statement, the couple said: “Despite the coroner’s decision, we will always be of the belief that there were serious errors in the midwifery care that Senniva received and that earlier intervention would have saved Senniva’s life. The midwives failed to act on multiple warning signs and in doing so denied Senniva the opportunity of timely, life-saving treatment.”

They added: “We are disappointed that the coroner does not agree with us, but ultimately hope that the investigation into Senniva’s death will help to prevent more tragic cases such as ours in the future.”

A hospital spokesman said the management and the midwives were devastated by Senniva’s death and would look to learn from the coroner’s findings.

n Mr and Mrs Hirst are raising money for the neonatal intensive care unit at Southampton General Hospital, in Senniva’s memory. Visit justgiving.com/fundraising/sennivahirst.