Newborn advice for CPR, for Healthcare professionals as this is different to standard infant CPR. This guidance is just for Healthcare professionals and not standard first aiders.
Newborn life support is complex and in this video, we are just looking at the basic guidelines.
Healthy babies are born blue, have good tone, they have colour and a good healthy heart rate, which within a few minutes will be between 120-150 beats per minute.
Less healthy babies are blue at birth, less good tone and a slow heart rate of fewer than 100 beats per minute.
A seriously ill baby will be born pale, its body will be floppy, it will not be breathing and with a slow or undetected heart rate.
Firstly you need to keep babies warm and dry, place them on their back with head in a neutral position.
Next assess tone, breathing, heart rate and record the data.
If after 30 seconds there is no reaching or just gasping, get help and consider oxygen level monitoring. Open the airway give 5 inflation breaths, then reassess the heart rate.
If there is no chest movement, reopen airway and repeat the breaths. If possible, consider two person airway control.
If no increase in heart rate, the heart rate is absent or less than 60 bpm, start chest compressions 3 to each breath.
Make sure you assess the babies vital signs, every 30 throughout the resuscitation process.
You also need to consider venous access for drugs and if oximetry is available, increase oxygen levels where necessary.
Finally, update the parents and debrief the team.
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