There were tears of joy when a couple were finally allowed to take home their son, who was born 13 weeks premature.

Zack Sturgess weighed 2lbs 2oz when he was born at Poole Hospital on January 11.

And it was only on Sunday that proud mum Debbie Sturgess, 37, of King Richard Drive, Bearwood, finally got to hold her baby in her own home.

Still small at 4lbs 12oz, Zack will have to be monitored for between two and five years, but it looks like he is over the worst.

"I've done nothing but cry all morning since I found out I could take him home," said Debbie.

"It's been such a mad few weeks. It will be great to finally relax."

Holding a constant vigil at the neo-natal intensive ward at Poole Hospital, Debbie and husband Peter have had to cope with a wide range of worries.

"He was on ventilators and had a couple of blood transfusions. He stopped breathing quite a few times.

"Every time we tried to sort out his room or something, there would be another crisis.

"But the nursing staff have been absolutely fantastic. They work so hard."

Poole's neo-natal intensive care unit looks after more than 400 premature babies every year, with the most premature being transported to Southampton.

Mums and dads are given 24-hour access to the unit, which has four intensive care cots with ventilators to aid breathing, six high dependency cots and 10 special care cots where babies feed from a tube, which can contain the mother's milk and which is inserted into the baby's stomach.

The unit even has two bedrooms so that the parents can get used to sleeping on their own with their babies before they are discharged from the hospital.