Tiny Tickers places ‘life-changing’ machines to help babies at the Royal Berkshire Hospital

The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust has received a donation of six pulse oximetry machines from Tiny Tickers, a charity that aims to improve the early detection and care of babies with serious heart conditions, with thanks to generous funding from the Shanly Foundation. These monitors, which can help detect serious heart conditions soon after birth, will be used to help improve early detection rates of congenital heart disease (CHD). The donation has been described as ‘life-changing’ by hospital staff.

Every baby has a physical examination within 72 hours of life, but at present, pulse oximetry screening does not form part of the mandatory newborn checks. A pulse oximetry test estimates the amount of oxygen in a baby's blood - low levels can be a sign of CHD. The test is carried out using a machine called a pulse oximeter, with sensors placed on the baby's skin.

Tiny Tickers has been placing pulse oximetry machines in maternity units all over the UK since 2017, with The Royal Berkshire hospital receiving the 200th machine. The charity aims to place 330 machines to fulfil the initial demand from maternity units by April 2022.

A baby is born with a serious heart condition every two hours in the UK. However, not all congenital heart defects can be detected during routine prenatal scanning and some babies are at risk of falling into the early stage of heart failure if their condition is not diagnosed in time. Tiny Tickers wants to change this situation.