Meet "Neo-Natalie"

Today was the first day of our 4th Helping Babies Breathe course this week here in Kinshasa. This course is unique in that it is a joint venture between LDS Charities and the US Agency for International Development (AID). All of our 26 participants have traveled to Kinshasa from places all over the Congo from several of the 11 provinces of the country including Katanga, South Kivu, Kasai-Oriental, and Kasai-Occidental.

Most of the participating nurses and doctors are hospital or department directors, so they will be instrumental in teaching neonatal resuscitation to those they work with in their local hospitals.

In our training courses, we use an inflatable mannequin called Neo-Natalie. When I first started teaching neonatal resuscitation in 2004, we used much more expensive baby mannequins that even had vocal cords to help in teaching intubation. These mannequins were very expensive (about $700). This limited the ability of LDS Charities to donate large numbers of teaching mannequins. Then Torre Laerdal of Stavanger, Norway (where my son Geoff served as a missionary), and the Laerdal company developed a much simpler mannequin that is perfect for teaching HBB in developing countries. This mannequin is only about $50 (Laerdal sells it at their cost). The whole teaching kit fits into a box a little bigger than a shoe box which is great for the providers who must carry it back to their hospitals on the bus or on the airplane. It is inflatable with either air or water (we use air). And it gives excellent feedback to the learner as it has "lungs" that inflate when the bag and mask is used correctly, and it even simulates the ability to check the babies heart rate by touching the base of the umbilical cord.

The kit includes the "Penguin," an innovative bulb suction device that you can open up, wash, sterilize with either boiling water or disinfectant or by autoclave. It is shaped like a penguin and even has little "eyes."

Here in the Congo, most women buy their own bulb syringes prior to going into labor which they then bring with them to the hospital. However, some women cannot afford to purchase one, so the penguin can be used and reused with these patients.

Each course participant will receive from LDS Charities a teaching kit, a teaching flip chart, a delivery room poster, and several printed student manuals as well as a CD with a digital copy of all the teaching documents. Participants will also receive 3 delivery room kits each of which includes a stethoscope, 2 penguins, and a reusable bag and mask. With this equipment and the skills that are learned in the course, these nurses and doctors will be well suited to teach their colleagues.

It is estimated that worldwide 900,000 babies die each year because they cannot breathe following birth. 90% of babies who are unable breathe following birth can be saved by neonatal resuscitation. So far 17,600 birth attendants have been trained by LDS Charities volunteers.They in turn have taught 118,400 others. Tomorrow, 26 more birth attendants will complete their training and prepare to train others as well.