Save Baby - CPR

Doctor Parimala V Thirumalesh

About this app

India ranks 12th among 52 low middle income countries with an infant mortality of 6 lakhs per year as per UNICEF statistics. Though significant progress has been made in reducing under 5 mortality, the under 1 month (neonatal) mortality has not reduced significantly.Considering most of these deaths are preventable we need active measures to reduce this. Being an instructor for Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) course and Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) course,I realised that with proper training the basic life support (BLS) can be provided by anyone medical or non-medical personnel and if done properly can save many lives. There is a gap in the basic life support (BLS) as it does not cover neonates (babies less than 1 month old) who should be resuscitated differently. It was seen that training and teaching basic newborn life support skills to parents and caregivers of high risk new born still did not always result in practical application as parents had forgotten the skills when it was really needed for their babies or were scared that they may do it wrong hence did not give the life support in time leading to the loss of many precious lives. To address this gap, this app was devised. Once a baby becomes unresponsive or stops breathing, the first two minutes is very important and is the main determinant between life and death so this time should not be wasted in finding help while leaving the baby unattended. This app has a simple step wise approach which can be seen and practiced simultaneously during the first precious two minutes of arrest before the baby gets proper medical help. This is meant as a first aid procedure only. This will be a valuable tool to save many lives if practiced correctly. It can be downloaded onto your mobile, is simple to use and comes in different languages. Hence neither literacy nor age will be an issue towards providing the much needed life support to the babies.