2019 Educational Assistance

I submitted an abstract on “Teaching intact cord resuscitation” and was accepted to present a poster.    My key message from the poster is that training in newborn resuscitation should not start with the baby on the resuscitaire, but before when the baby is first born and is attached to its mother by the umbilical cord.

So much critical decision-making takes place in the first minute after the birth and this impacts on whether or not the baby receives vital placental transfusion.  It was incredibly beneficial to learn from conference speakers about all the ongoing trials and experiments on neonatal transition.  This will be used as part of my ongoing Masters in Midwifery thesis on the timing of cord clamping at term vaginal births in a tertiary hospital as well as in my teaching of newborn resuscitation.

Topics we can study to improve outcomes include oxygen, meconium, adrenaline, surfactant as well as cord clamping and cord milking.

Speakers, too numerous to mention added to the extensive learning that I gained from attending this meeting.  I am grateful to the funding that I received from the Canterbury Neonatal Trust Fund, which helped towards my costs of attending.  To summarise, I will be able to use the learning in my ongoing teaching of newborn resuscitation, which I will now rename “supporting newborn transition”. My teaching includes newborn life support (NLS) for midwifery & neonatal staff.