Maws Reassurance Baby Monitor 8

I was pregnant. I had read everything you should and shouldn't do to prevent SIDS, and I was a nervous wreck. I was convinced that I would need to check on my baby every 10 minutes during the night, and would never sleep well again....

I then babysat overnight for a friend who had this monitor. It made me so happy. I could sleep easily knowing that if the worst should happen, I would be alerted immediately and could start action immediately, rather than next time I went to check on the baby.

With various family members wanting to buy me baby things - cot, pram etc, I asked for this as a gift.

We used it from the first time we brought our daughter home.

This is a baby monitor with a sensor pad that goes beneath the cot mattress (it will work under up to 12cms of mattress). You can use it just as a normal monitor, which picks up sounds and relays them to you via a parent unit as sound, or with the volume down, as flashing lights. It can also be used with the alarm sensor in place. The pad connects to the unit in the baby's room, and senses every tiny movement, including breathing. When nothing has been sensed for 25 seconds, a high-pitched alarm will sound, and a light flashes red until movement resumes. When there is movement again, the alarm stops, but the light stays red, so that you can see something has happened. You can also use the sensor with no alarm, so a light flashes green at you every time there is movement, and it turns red when it stops. There is even a setting to have a tick heard with every movement. There is a room temperature sensor on the baby part, which shows you on the parent unit what temperature the nursery is.

I loved the alarm - it gave me so much reassurance. I knew that I would hear if there was a problem, especially as I slept with it by my head.

As a monitor though, I felt that the volume didn't go up high enough. If we were downstairs with the monitor, instead of in our bedroom where we were closer to the real crying, she had to holler a bit to be noticed, rather than just hearing a quick whimper as she stirred. There is an option to enhance the sound, but that means picking up every little noise, which then makes it fuzzy when it is up loud.

The green flashing movement light was great - you just have to glance up for a second to make sure everything is ok, but the clicking noise is just irritating, and I'm not quite sure why it is there... It just made it harder for her to fall asleep as the clicking comes from the baby part!

Having a temperature display on the parent section was helpful - as a new mum, unsure of how many blankets she would need, a temperature display was very helpful.

It was very easy to move, so when she went to stay with Gran, the monitor went too, and Gran wasn't worrying all night.

When they get more wriggly and start crawling round their cot from about 7-9 months, things can get trickier... If they squash themselves into one end of the cot, they are out of range of the monitor, and can set the alarm off. You soon realise just how quickly you can run!

As for health visitors’ warnings of they make you too relaxed about your sleeping child - they don't. Just because you have an alarm, it doesn't mean that you don't continue to check on your sleeping baby regularly, it just means you have warning should the unthinkable happen, and you can get some much-needed sleep.

If you want it just as a baby monitor, then you would be better off spending the same amount of money on a digital one, so that you get the sound quality, but if you want it for the sensor pad, then get it.

It costs about £90 - £100 and can be bought from Boots, Mothercare, Babies R Us etc, but waiting for the sales, or shopping round the internet can often get you a better deal.

Value for money? I would definately pay it again for the peace of mind.