• Over 47% of new mothers are not made aware within 24 hours of giving birth of how to spot dangerous conditions that could kill them or their baby.
• Only 24% of respondents could remember receiving information about warning signs.

These are the daunting statistics published today in the Guardian following a social poll performed by the website netmums (http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/07/mothers-baby-lifesaving-advice-netmums-survey).

The article discusses the pressures placed on the NHS today and the feelings from midwives that many of them would like to offer more to new families. However, the reality is not one of us would want anything to happen to a loved one, especially a mum or a baby.

Steve Furnell, one of our directors has spent 7 years of his clinical career working as a specialist in obstetric and newborn resuscitation, we asked him for his comments.

Steve commented that in the 20+ years he has been involved with educating parents he still feels that the number of people trained is too low and courses do not cover enough on recognising problems with mum or baby – we only tend to cover what to do if they stop breathing and/or their heart stops (cardiac arrest). This is too late – the trick is to recognise the early warning signs and prevent the cardiac arrest in the first place, but we need to educate the public in how to do this before it is too late.

He goes on to comment that parents often come to him for advice and training on what to do if there is an emergency involving their baby. Whilst Steve fully supports, encourages and promotes this he notes that after the safe birth of a child it is more likely for their to be an issue with mum (or dad, or grandparent… In fact the last cardiac arrest he dealt with on a maternity unit was that of a new father who had a heart attack followed by a cardiac arrest).

Steve noted that whilst the statistics are sad they are not new – these figures were actually published and reported in November last year (Ref: Independent) and the problem still exists. Furthermore,  Mother and Baby magazine carried out the “Save a Life” survey a number of years ago where 2000 parents were questioned about their ability to save their child’s life in the event an emergency. The results were equally daunting:

• 91% of parents don’t know basic first aid.
• 80% of parents would not know how to   resuscitate their child.
• 19% of parents have witnessed their child choke and 69% didn’t know what to do.
• 92% don’t think their baby sitters would know what to do in an emergency.

Steve finally commented that as a husband and a father having children is one of the most exciting yet most scary times of his own life. However, I felt safer in the knowledge that not only did I know how to spot the warning signs of life threatening emergencies & deal with these situations (for both my wife and children) I had also trained those closest to me in the same basic knowledge and skills.

So we asked Steve what is the answer to this ongoing, if not worsening issue?. He commented that whilst we can rely on the doctors and nurses and midwives in todays NHS, they are under tremendous pressure and are not always able to offer patients the full advice and support they would like to. Quite simply people need to also take responsibility for their own knowledge and skills. Knowing who and when to call for help is such a simple thing to learn.

Resuscitation and Medical Consultancy run a variety of courses that cover what to do in an emergency. The most popular courses amongst parents to be, and new parents are our Baby & Child Basic Life Support and our Baby and Child Illness and Injury . These are often run in conjunction with either antenatal or postnatal classes and both allow ample time for theory, practice and time for questions and answers.

Whilst the courses advertised on our website have a ‘set’ syllabus, our trainers are always more than happy to answer other medical emergency questions.  We are able to do this because all of our instructors are experienced and qualified health care professionals who have years of experience of how to recognize and manage emergencies (as opposed to a first aid instructor) – they don’t just follow what is in a lesson plan and a text book.  They really are able to answer a whole host of questions on courses that can relate to adults, children or babies. A recent quote from one of our courses stated the following:

“the paramedic instructor who came to my friends home last weekend to run a baby CPR course was really able to understand our worries, concerns and fears as expectant parents. Her relaxed attitude and style of training made the course fly by in the few hours she was with us.  I cannot believe how much we covered and she made what we thought to be a really scary and difficult subject easy and common sense.  Having a manikin each to practice CPR on was brilliant – it meant no waiting around and we all had a lot of fun practicing.   What was also lovely was that she was more than happy to answer questions on things ‘off the course list’ which I have never seen on courses before.  At one point we ended up talking about recognizing strokes as one the groups brothers had recently suffered one in his twenties.  The trainers knowledge and experience really gave both my husband and I the confidence that we would be able to deal with any emergency should the need arise… thank you.”

Furthermore, if you would like any particular extra topics covered – then just ask us. We are more than happy to build a course to suit your needs and we can advise you on what might suit you best. We aim to make our courses not only interesting and informative but also enjoyable and fun. We have a very relaxed informal style of training and we want you to walk away feeling confident about your abilities.

Training courses can be delivered at a time to suit you –  we can deliver during the day, evening or weekends. We can come to your home, club, workplace, BBQ or pub to deliver the training – quite simply we have a flexible approach to suit your needs. Just give us a call and we will work out something to suit you.

For any advice or to ask a question about this blog please contact us at info@ramcltd.com