Baby Lifeline is a charity that was born from personal tragedy in 1981 and has since raised over £8 million to provide an abundance of technology for use in maternity services, as well as for specialist training for its health care professionals.

As the birth rate increases in this country to approximately 670,000 a year, we still see around 8,500 babies dying around the time of birth and during the first year of life.

As medicine has advanced over the years to improve the care of pregnant women and their babies, more expertise has led to a far higher demand on funds needed for equipment and training. The burden on the NHS is therefore greater than ever before and our appeal is to complement the work already carried out.

Baby Lifeline works with hundreds of expert health professionals to ensure the best possible outcome from pregnancy and birth - caring for our future generations.

Please would you support this exciting appeal, which will provide the equipment requested from our maternity units, ranging from small hand held heart detectors to monitor an unborn baby's heart rate, to monitors and scanners, providing the best care in pregnancy and child birth.

However small your donation may be, please be assured that every penny given will make a huge difference to the appeal and indeed to mothers and babies.

I thank you in anticipation of your support.

My best wishes,

Dame Judi Dench

Vice President - Baby Lifeline