Forget the five stages of grief. Experiencing loss is always hard and everyone handles it in different ways.

A four-week old baby was killed after his mum took him to a nightclub and then drunkenly fell asleep on top of him, a court has heard.

Swansea Crown Court in Wales was told Marina Tilby, 26, went on a night out with her sister on March 31 2017, where she was seen repeatedly throwing and catching Darian in a nightclub.

After leaving the Sea Horse Inn in New Quay, she took the newborn back to a caravan with three men she had met — and later fell asleep on top of him.

Darian was found unresponsive with blood in his mouth lying next to his mum in the early hours the following morning, the BBC reports.

Tilby was jailed for two years and four months after admitting wilful neglect at Swansea Crown Court, with a judge branding the incident a “dreadful case of maternal selfishness” and slamming the mum for the “deliberate neglect”.

During the hearing, jurors heard how Tilby drank pints of Guinness with sister Lucy Williamson — before drinking bottles of port and gin at a caravan park in New Quay, Wales.

The pair had accepted an invitation to spend the night with three men after meeting in the pub.

Tilby fell asleep at 3:30am — and almost immediately rolled onto little Darrian.

Within minutes Lucy noticed and rolled her off but Darian already had blood around his mouth.

Tilby was so heavily under the influence she was unable to be roused from her sleep by her sister, who had also stayed at the caravan, for more than an hour.

Darrian was rushed to a local hospital by ambulance, but Tilby was too drunk to go with him.

Police woke her at 5:15am so she could say goodbye to Darrian.

Prosecutor Catherine Richards said he suffered a heart attack as a result of Tilby sleeping on top of him, but the prosecution could not prove it.

Defence barrister, Defyed Thomas, argued the extent of Tilby’s guilty plea to the wilful neglect of her son was down to the fact “she was so intoxicated”.

“She took a catastrophic set of actions in deciding to go out that night and continuing to drink,” Mr Thomas said, according to a report in The Mirror.

“She wishes to express to the court, the baby’s father and her own family her own remorse and feeling of guilt from that night.

“Her grief will fill her for the absence of her child for the rest of her days.”

But Judge Paul Thomas blasted Tilby’s actions: “It is a mother’s responsibility and duty, and her natural instinct, to put the care and safety of her four-week-old baby above all else.

“You ignored that duty and got completely and hopelessly drunk. This is a dreadful case of selfishness.”

Mr Thomas added: “She will never forgive herself. Her lapse of judgement will punish her for the rest of her life.”