Bradford's revamped £2m neonatal unit officially opens this month

President of the Royal College of Paediatrics, Hilary Cass, will be the guest of honour on Thursday, January 15 when the ribbon is cut.

Invited Guests will also include the parents who helped redesign the new unit.

They will be at the opening and be taken on tours while Dr Cass will also be giving a lecture on The Future of Children's Services at Bradford Royal Infirmary's Sovereign Lecture Theatre at 1pm .

Parents of babies who received treatment on the unit had been heavily involved in the building’s re-design, Caroline Bello-Osagie, from Bierley, Bradford, was given the honour of cutting the first sod.

Mrs Bello-Osagie and her husband, Kehinde, found the process of helping to create the improved facility helped ease the grief of losing their baby girl, Aisosa, who was born at just 25 weeks and two days in July, 2012 after Caroline went into premature labour.

Aisosa, who weighed just 670 grams, spent three weeks and two days in the intensive care unit before dying due to complications arising from her extreme prematurity.

Mrs Bello-Osagie said at the time while the care from the neonatal staff was second-to-none, they felt the accommodation was old, cramped and in need of refurbishment so being part of this new build was an incredibly positive experience

The investment has included a complete rebuild of the old baby unit with the opening of two new intensive care cots, with space for a further two to be opened in the future.

The unit has opened in stages and has been a challenging time for staff, mums and babies, said consultant neonatologist, Dr Chris Day.

"There have been times when it has been very noisy, things have had to be drilled and we've had to have tiny ear muffs for the baby but parents have been extremely understanding and now the work is complete."

The enlarged unit will have ensuite family bedrooms, a play area within a new relatives sitting room and a counselling suite. There will also be a dedicated room for mothers to express breast milk for their pre-term babies. The unit previously cared for up to 27 babies at any one time and is regularly full.

The unit has five intensive care cots, five high dependency cots and 17 low dependency cots and babies delivered in other hospitals are often transferred to the unit for the highest levels of intensive care.

Dr Day said more spaces had been created which would help make it more of a family atmosphere.

There were also new screens that could go round cots to give families more privacy and would support mums giving 'kangeroo care' to their incubator babies where babies are nursed lying skin-to-skin on top of their mums resting in a reclining chair - babies can still be attached to their incubator support.

"It's nice for mums and nice for babies. Skin-to-skin steadies baby's breathing and temperature," added Dr Day.