It is great to be back teaching face-to-face again, albeit still only in the UK. UK NICHE instructors have to teach on a certain number of life support courses per year to maintain their instructor status. Julia was teaching the UK Resuscitation council Newborn Life Support (NLS) course this week in her home hospital in London.
There are some differences when stabilising a preterm delivery at birth. The 2021 guidelines suggest that babies born under 32 weeks gestation should be put into a plastic bag at birth and placed under a radiant heater to stop them getting cold and dehydrated. Just their heads should be dried.
In most other respects, and if there is no radiant heater available, they should be stabilised the same way one would stabilise a term baby. Here the learners are demonstrating the 2-handed BVM technique with Julia checking that the chest is actually rising!
