When I was pregnant for the first time buying one of these did enter my mind, but I dismissed it as being over cautious and paranoid. Then my father-in-law offered to buy us one. He isn't usually so generous with his money so him offering really made me re-think my original decision. I also thought that it was an offer I couldn't refuse for obvious reasons.

The Nircom Babysense consists of 2 large sensor pads which you place under the mattress of your baby's cot. These are attached to the operating unit which you attach to the top bar of the cot (wrapping the wires around the cot bar so there are no trailing wires). The operating unit has an on/off button, which has a sliding cover to keep little fingers out. The unit runs on AA batteries (which they recommend you change every 6 months) so there is a red battery low indicator light. The other light is a green light which flashes on and off to show that your baby's breathing pattern is regular. If baby stops breathing for more than 20 seconds or if the breathing rate drops below 10 breaths a minute, an alarm is sounded. Before the alarm is sounded the unit makes a clicking noise. This gives you chance to turn the unit off if actually what has happened is you've taken baby out and are pacing the room trying to settle them, but in your sleep deprived haze you've forgotten to turn the alarm off!

The Babysense is very simple to set up. It is recommended that you place the unit on a solid board so we placed a piece of MDF over the wooden lats of the cot. It can be used in a moses basket (only one sensor pad is needed for this) but we never did this as we used a swinging crib instead of a moses basket. Again, only one sensor pad was needed for this.

The piece of mind the Babysense gives you makes this product worth every penny! There is no doubt in those first few weeks that you bring your baby home from the hospital you are a nervous wreck about everything. You have the most precious thing in the world, and you are the responsible one! Sleep is so rare that when you are lucky enough to get some, it should be quality sleep! I found that using the Babysense made that possible. I particularly appreciated it on those nights when baby slowly starts needing less milk in the night and would sleep an hour longer between feeds than usual. Rather than waking up in a complete panic and rushing to check they're ok, you can roll over and enjoy getting the extra hour!

We have never had any false alarms with this product. Although the sensor mats don't literally cover the whole base of the cot, they are so sensitive that even if baby is not laid directly on top of a mat the movement of their breathing will still be picked up by the sensor. In fact, we have found that even the movement of baby wriggling on the cot top changing mat will keep the green light flashing!

We are now using the Babysense for a second time with my son, and again have had no problems. The battery life is fantastic and once again, the peace of mind the Babysense gives you makes this product worth every penny.

One criticism I do have of this product is that once you have left the room there is no way of checking that the Babysense is on without returning to the room. We have to shut our sons bedroom door so our 3 year old doesn't wake him up! As we live in an old and creaky house, opening the door again is so noisy it wakes him up. And there are many times when either I or my husband have left the room and got back into bed and thought 'did we turn it on?'. Generally we have, but it's become such an automatic thing to do that you do it without realising, then doubt whether you did it. Some sort of parent unit which indicates whether the unit is on would be very handy! However, this is a small problem that in less creaky houses probably isn't a problem so I am not marking the product down for this.

But, that said, I would still recommend this product over any other similar units on the market. I have friends that have used other brands and have had false alarms where the baby has rolled off the sensor. You don't need waking up like that several times a week! We have used this for a combined total of over 18 months with both my children and not had a single false alarm.