KEEPING tabs on the progress of new-born babies at Fairfield Hospital in Bury has been made easier thanks to the Rotary Club of Bury Irwell Vale.

The club has donated a special monitor to check babies' breathing patterns. The sophisticated £500 device, an MR10 neo-natal respirator unit, is little bigger than a video hand-set control.

Powered by batteries, the unit is taped to a baby's chest. If the baby's breathing is interrupted for a few seconds, the unit immediately sounds an alarm.

Jackie Blease, Fairfield senior neo-natal midwife, said: "Not all new-born babies need to be monitored in this way. The sensor's particular value is in monitoring premature babies or those born into a family where there is a history of cot death."

As the monitor is so small and lightweight, it can be sent home with the baby for up to one year.

"It's a marvellous help to us here in the hospital because if the alarm goes off the baby will receive immediate attention," said Jackie. "It's a special source of comfort to parents in the home."

It was this reassurance factor that led the Bury Irwell Vale club to donate the money for the monitor through the Fairfield Baby Lifeline charity. The London-based doctor-daughter of club member Robert Watson last year gave birth to premature twins and was highly impressed by the performance of the monitors attached to her babies.