Once your son or daughter is born, there is going to be a huge amount to learn about how to care for your baby, so it makes perfect sense to prepare in advance.
Having a new baby will be one of the most significant times of your life and the chances are all will go well. The baby will be healthy, you will feel great, no accidents will happen and no medical emergencies will take place.
However, you should be prepared for the worst – how would you react if your baby became unconscious? Are you prepared for allergic reactions? And do you know what to do if a small child was choking? If you feel that you may panic in any of these situations, particularly if it is your own child, then learning about first aid should be a vital part of your pre-birth preparations.
There are many books around with advice on childcare and maternity, but feeding your baby the right foods and changing nappies isn’t all that a parent needs to know. First aid is something that all parents and carers of young children should be trained in so that medical emergencies can be dealt with, effectively saving lives.
Many expectant parents have good intentions before the birth; in fact some Health Authorities even offer Post-Natal basic life support classes which you may at least plan to attend. However in the weeks after the birth so many other things can end up taking priority, and then there’s the tiredness you will probably be experiencing in the early days and weeks… and of course, once we are looking at our beautiful, impossibly perfect little baby we simply don’t want to think about the possibility of something happening to them.
Can we prevent our little one becoming ill? No. Can we necessarily protect them from all possible accidents or sudden allergic reactions? No. The thing that could make the difference between a short-term, stressful, upsetting incident and a terrible tragedy is the ability to know exactly what to do if it happens.
Don’t wait to learn life saving techniques until after your child is born – start early – it can make all the difference.
