Lincs: Parents urged to learn infant CPR after research shows only a quarter would know what to do if their baby stopped breathing

Parents in Lincolnshire are being urged to attend infant first aid classes after new research showed only a quarter would know what to do if their baby stopped breathing.
First aid course will teach how to do infanct CPRFirst aid course will teach how to do infanct CPR
First aid course will teach how to do infanct CPR

St John Ambulance has released a video, starring nursery rhyme characters, which demonstrates how to give cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to a baby that is unconscious and not breathing.

UK research, commissioned by St John Ambulance, found three out of four Mums and Dads said this first aid emergency scared them the most and while two-thirds said they had learnt first aid, most from a workplace course, only one in four knew how to treat babies.

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CPR for babies is different from adult CPR, in that only two fingers should be used to give pumps to the baby’s chest and its nose and mouth must be covered by the rescuer’s mouth to give life saving puffs.

Last year, St John Ambulance ran an award-winning campaign, The Chokeables, to teach parents how to save a child from choking, which led directly to the saving of 46 children.

St John Ambulance regional director, Simon Dunn, said: “The Chokeables was a real step forward for us and the response was amazing.

“We’ve listened to parents and we know that they want to learn first aid skills in a way that’s easy and memorable. That’s what inspired the creation of Nursery Rhymes Inc.

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“We know that a major barrier to parents learning is that baby CPR frightens them, so we’ve removed the fear factor and made it as reassuring as possible by making this new video and putting on a set of courses.

“As well as learning the technique themselves, we’re asking everyone to share the video so that all parents, grandparents and carers know what to do in those crucial minutes after a baby has stopped breathing.”

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