STEPHEN LEWIS celebrates 20 years of giving tiny premature babies a fighting chance.

ASHLEY Judge will never forget the first time she saw her baby son Sam. She was unconscious under a general anaesthetic when he was born six weeks prematurely at York District Hospital. Even when she came around, she was so ill from the effects of high blood pressure it was eight hours before staff felt she was ready to see him.

It was hugely frustrating. Ashley was shown a Polaroid snap of her son: and her husband John, who had already been able to hold him, kept appearing at her bedside to assure her the tiny baby was OK.

The staff in the special care baby unit were great too, Ashley says. "It seemed as though every single person who was in the unit that day came down to tell me how my baby was," she recalls.

Eventually the moment came. Ashley was pushed through into the special unit where Sam was in an incubator. He only weighed 4lbs, he had a tube in his nose and a drip in his arm. "But he was gorgeous because he was my baby," she says. "He wasn't having oxygen, so they were able to take him out of the incubator to let me hold him. I got to cuddle him. There's no feeling like it."

Even so, having to give birth in such circumstances was a shock. Until a couple of days earlier, Ashley had thought everything was progressing normally.

Then she began to suffer from swelling, or oedema, and was brought in for a check-up. She was diagnosed as suffering from pre-eclampsia, or high blood pressure - and when tests revealed Sam's heartbeat was slowing down as Ashley's blood pressure went up, doctors decided they had no alternative but to operate.

What really struck her, after she saw her son that first time, however, was how much worse it could have been. At six weeks premature, Sam was much larger than many of the other babies in the unit.

In the cot next to Sam's was a tiny baby who had been born 12 weeks premature, she recalls. "He was absolutely tiny, like a little monkey," she says. "He was all arms and legs and head, with no meat on him at all. Seeing him really put things into perspective for me. We were in hospital for ten days. That baby was there for three months."

Every year, the special care baby unit in York helps as many as 300 premature or sick babies through those crucial first few days or weeks of life.

Many of them - like little Finn Morgan, born 14 weeks premature earlier this year weighing little more than a bag of sugar - are tiny little scraps of humanity whose chances of survival without the modern technology and the care and dedication of staff at the unit would be almost non-existent.

Not all the babies in the unit are there because they were born prematurely, however. Others are there because they were born unwell or because doctors believe that, for some reason, they are at risk of infection.

Lynne Britton wasn't expecting to give birth for another two weeks when she popped into a York hairdresser for a treat. Her waters broke while she was there. Luckily, her husband was with her and, after a quick phone call, rushed her into hospital.

Two days later, Lynne still hadn't given birth. So doctors, worried about the risk of infection, decided to perform an emergency caesarean. Lynne, still groggy from the operation and suffering from a bad chest infection, was allowed to hold her baby son Ruaraidh for a moment before he was taken away to the special care baby unit.

"It felt wonderful!" she says. "I just thought oh, God, it feels like nothing I have ever felt in my life before."

She became panicky at being separated from her son; but again staff were wonderful, she says, allowing her and her husband Richard to hold and cuddle their son throughout the next ten days until staff were satisfied Ruaraidh, who had been on antibiotics, didn't have an infection after all and could go home.

Both Sam Judge and Ruaraidh Britton are now healthy, normal six-year-olds - just two of the many youngsters who owe so much to the special care baby unit.

Like so many of the parents whose children began life there, their mums are now active members of the Special Care Baby Unit support group. Ashley is a committee member, Lynne the charity's chairwoman.

The group, which celebrates it's 20th birthday this year with a service at York Minster on October 3, provides support for parents of special care babies, so they can chat to other mums and dads who have been through the same thing.

It also raises money for extra equipment for the unit - £45,000 was spent last year, for example, on four new incubators - and runs a clothing bank so parents of tiny, premature babies can get clothes that fit them.

Lynne and Ashley, who both come originally from Scotland and knew very few people in York at the time Ruaraidh and Sam were born, say the support group was a lifeline once they had taken their babies home.

"I don't know what I would have done without them," Lynne says. "Because I was from Scotland, I didn't know anybody in York."

It was important, Ashley adds, since because Sam had to go into the special care baby unit she didn't meet other mums in the hospital's regular maternity wards, so she didn't form the immediate network of friends and support most mums do.

"The support group was great for that," she says.

It seems odd now to think that at one time she knew no one in York, Lynne says. Because of her work with the support group, she can't go anywhere now without bumping into mums and dads who want to stop for a chat and share experiences.

"I've got to know so many people," she says. "It's lovely."

How the unit has grown

THE York Special Care Baby Unit was opened at the end of 1983, after transferring from the old Fulford maternity hospital. Within less than a year, Ellen Willey, who was the sister in charge of the unit at the time, had founded the support group.

The main role of the group was always to provide support for parents who were going through the trauma of seeing their babies face such a struggle for life.

Ellen set up a core group of mums who had been through the experience themselves, and arranged for them to come in to visit other mums and dads in the unit.

"It helps a lot to find they are not alone," she says. "Nurses are wonderful people and they can do all kinds of wonderful things. But one thing we couldn't really do is be able to fully identify with parents who are going through this. You need other parents who have gone through the full range of emotions to do that."

The present support group has grown from those early beginnings. Its fund-raising activities took off in 1985 when, with the help of the Evening Press's Baby Scanner Appeal, more than £70,000 was raised for equipment for the new baby unit.

Now, there is a monthly parents' group meeting, fund-raising activities, and the clothing bank.

The unit is a state-of-the-art facility for up to 15 special care and high-dependency babies. Two of the 15 cots are intensive care. The staff is led by a consultant and includes expert medical and nursing staff, as well as support from physiotherapists, the hospital's X-ray, hearing and eye departments, social workers and support group members.

Updated: 11:23 Wednesday, September 08, 2004