HBB2-Pointe-Noir Day 2

Today we taught Helping Babies Breathe to 50 midwives from this region. Joining our team from the USA and Canada were the doctors whom we trained yesterday. We are teaching the new revised curriculum (HBB2) in which we teach that if a baby is born with meconium-stained amniotic fluid but is vigorous, we no longer suction the baby. Research has shown that there is no advantage in suctioning these babies unless the baby is born and is not crying and not breathing. The new curriculum is now also tied into the Helping Mothers Survive curriculum.

The course today was taught at a hospital in the northern part of Pointe-Noir called L'Hopitale de Base Tié-Tié. Power outages are common here, so we had no electricity for about half of the day, but there were some large windows in the room, so that provided adequate light for us to proceed with the course without a problem.

In this course we focus on teaching the midwives to use the bag and mask to resuscitate babies who are not breathing at birth and who don't respond to stimulation by drying off the baby and rubbing the baby's back 2 or 3 times. Traditionally they put rubbing alcohol on a depressed baby's skin to try to stimulate the baby to breathe and cry, but this is not in keeping with the HBB guidelines. The midwives with whom I spoke said that they do not have the bag and mask equipment available at their hospitals. Though the donations made to the Humanitarian Aid fund of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reusable bag and mask equipment will be donated to each hospital in the region.

.