“A laboring mother had pre-eclampsia and the midwives called saying that the fetal strip didn’t look good.” INMED Diploma candidate Isaac Billings pulled on his shoes, and ran to the maternity ward where his attending, recognizing the emergency, rapidly performed a C-section.
Isaac continues, “It was quickly obvious that the baby was in need of resuscitation. He was limp, with no respiratory effort, and had cyanosis. I quickly clamped and cut the umbilical cord, and handed the baby to the Nurse with the towel. The nurse, however, was new and did not have experience with newborn resuscitation. She and her assistant were struggling.
“Remembering my recent training in the INMED Helping Babies Breathe Course, began by quickly and vigorously drying and stimulate him with a towel. There was still no respiratory effort. Setting the wet towel aside, I began to ventilate with the bag-valve-mask. The nurse anesthetist came over and soon confirmed that the baby’s pulse was greater than 100. After about 90 more seconds total of ventilating, the baby began a weak cry and started to breath on his own. Five minutes later, he was pink with an APGAR score of 8 out of 10. The baby went on to two days in the NICU, but was ultimately discharged healthy to a smiling mother.”