Fawley (4 April 2007) -- Parents taking their babies home for the first time from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton, will have the opportunity to use a monitoring device at home, thanks to a recent donation from Esso and ExxonMobil Chemical at Fawley refinery.

"For many parents, taking a premature baby home can be a very anxious time", said Kim Harris, community fundraising co-ordinator for Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, "and so we decided to embark on fundraising in order to purchase baby monitoring devices that could be used by parents.

"We approached the refinery to see if they could help and to our delight they agreed to donate almost £5,000, which enabled us to purchase ten new monitors."

Carol Bega of ExxonMobil's Medicine and Occupational Health department, visited the hospital to meet the staff and hand over the baby monitors. She said: "We are so pleased to be able to support the Unit in this way and we hope that these devices will help to reassure new parents taking their babies home for the first time."

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit based at the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton is the South's Regional Specialist Centre, providing care for premature and full-term babies. It has recently been re-developed and upgraded and, with an increased capacity of 36 cots, it is one of the biggest Neonatal Units in the country. Work has progressed well to establish bright roomy Intensive Care and High Care rooms.