THE maternity unit at the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where Sarah Brown gave birth yesterday has been open since March last year and boasts many modern comforts.

Mothers can access e-mail from their beds in the labour rooms, which have en-suite toilet and shower. On the wards in the 45-bed facility, patients have their own telephone extensions and televisions.

However, staff and women have complained about bare walls and the heat in the new building at Little France on the southern outskirts of the city.

Claire Gardner, who earlier this year gave birth at the unit, officially named the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health, said: ''It is all very white and modern and clinical. However, it is very, very sparse and there are no pictures. In fact there is not much decoration at all and it is also very, very hot.''

Car parking can cost as much as (pounds) 10 a day at the

hospital, which was built through a (pounds) 184m private finance initiative.

Dr Rhona Hughes, consultant obstetrician of the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, said last night that mother and child were doing ''very well''.

It is understood that Mrs Brown used the Edinburgh hospital, instead of Forth Park Hospital, Kirkcaldy, where she gave birth to Jennifer Jane, who later died, because of the complications experienced then.

Jennifer Jane was transferred to the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as her condition deteriorated in January 2002.

Earlier this year the couple launched a research charity into premature births in Edinburgh. The couple said they would help raise (pounds) 600,000 for the Jennifer Brown Research Fund to pay for a laboratory to be based at the new ERI.