Tiny triplets sent to three different hospitals because of a shortage of incubators have been reunited.

Yesterday the sisters, all born seriously underweight, were finally in the same ward at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Delighted parents Gillian and Peter Almond, of Lansdowne Place, Worthing, had been making a daily nine-hour, 150-mile round trip to visit their newborn daughters. No hospital within 100 miles of their home could take all three.

Beth, Katie and Hannah were split up as soon as they were born by Caesarean section 15 weeks prematurely at Worthing Hospital.

Beth, born first weighing 1lb 12oz, was sent to a unit at the Royal Sussex. Her sister Katie, weighing 1lb 14oz, was taken to Kings College Hospital, London and the last baby Hannah, who weighted 1lb 7oz, went to Kingston Hospital, in Surrey.

Mrs Almond, 32, a teacher at Shelley Primary School, Horsham, said: "I was a bit anxious about having them all in different places but we had been warned when I went for scans that they didn't have the facilities to look after them all in the same place.

"It was strange and it wasn't convenient for us, but we were much more concerned about their safety than our convenience."

Two weeks later Katie joined Beth, then a week later, Hannah left Kingston Hospital and joined her sisters at Brighton.

Mrs Almond said: "It was exhausting, especially having decided to breast feed. I had to give milk at different hospitals every four hours which wasn't very easy."

She said she soon got over her initial worry at seeing her little girls connected to the machines.

She said: "I can't praise the hospital staff enough. They have been fantastic, making the babies look comfortable and us welcome.

"They've explained everything and they treat them like little people, not just like patients."

Beth now weighs 2lb 8oz, Katie, 2lb 3oz and Hannah 1lb 14oz and Mrs Almond said she couldn't wait to get them all home soon after their due date of April 22.

Mrs Almond said her class was keeping up to date with the triplets' progress and could not wait to see them.

She added: "I'm really looking forward to having them home, but I'm making use of the time to organise myself and we are looking for a minibus to carry everybody around in."

The couple, who have a year old son, Simon, were helped with transport by their parents who live in Rustington and Eastergate, near Chichester.

Ian Keeber, spokesman for the Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, said they have 16 cots for babies born prematurely and only had one free.

He said: "We reserved them spaces to get them together as soon as we could."