03/17/09 Infant CPR

Wil and I signed up for infant CPR class.  It’s quite scary to have a premature baby and Wil and I wanted to be as best prepared as possible. 

Now for adult CPR, you train on life-like and life-size dummies.  You’d assume the same having infant dolls for infant CPR.  So I imagined Noah.  Now, the doll used for practice is supposedly the average typical size and weight for an infant.  In relation to Noah, this practice doll was huge!  Once again, Noah is smaller than the size of a loaf of bread and weighs about 3 loaves (2lb and 11 oz).  This infant doll was larger than my forearm and had to weight about 7-9 pounds. 

CPR is summed up as the ABCs, Airway, Breathing and Chest.  Airway is the most important but that didn’t get me.  Breathing is a no brainer, I’m ready to lock my lips over his nose and mouth if it means saving his life.  It’s the chest compressions that I have a hard time with. 

You put two fingers on his sternum and press (about an inch deep).  Now the mental picture that troubled me is that Noah is about 3 inches thick from his back to his chest.  That is one serious compression.  Even though I know this already, the nurses attempted to assure me that the sternum is connected to the ribs by connective tissue so its quite elastice.  So this depression should be okay.  So I trained to infant CPR pressing on this giant infant doll’s chest and the chest literally caves in and it looks like its doing more harm than help.  Chest compressions for an infant do not look pleasent at all. 

I’m glad that 99% of the issues that require CPR are due to blocked airways.  So if I take care of the airway, I’ll be done and never have to move on to the chest compressions.  If it ever happens, Wil and I are prepared and we know what to do.  If a situation ever happens, I’m sure we’d react and those thoughts wouldn’t slow us down. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

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