Tara Jeffrey
Three-quarters of new parents at Bluewater Health are taking home life-saving CPR skills to protect their newborns.
Dr. Baljit Singh says all new parents are offered the ‘Infant CPR Anytime’ learning kits, provided by the Heart & Stroke Foundation, and about 75% of them opt to take the training.
“We have a good rate -- so they’re learning before they go. And the key is to be informed,” said Singh, medical director at the hospital’s maternal/infant/child program.
“This helps parents gain confidence to perform life saving measures in an unfortunate event, so we want them to be trained.”
The learning kits are strongly encouraged for new parents -- particularly those with high risk babies or babies being discharged from the Special Care Nursery. They are also offered to parents of children younger than one year admitted to the pediatric unit.
They use the ‘practice while watching’ technique, Singh noted.
“First they are informed and are given a DVD. Then they practice the CPR techniques on the manikin.”
The entire process takes about 20 minutes, Singh said. CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) is a lifesaving procedure that can keep blood and oxygen moving to the heart and brain when the heart has stopped beating, which could happen after drowning, suffocation, choking or other injuries.
By performing CPR correctly, breathing and the flow of oxygenated blood to the child’s vital organs, particularly the brain, can be restored.