The "Golden Minute"

From the Field: Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Written by: Stacy Lawton

I know it's  Wednesday and I think it's July 11, not really sure?...My sense of time is as foreign as this country!  Finally got a good nights sleep last night! I definitely needed i because today we trained 3 groups with approximately 16-20 people each session. It was  a good mix of nurses, physicians, and birth attendants.  A good portion of trainees practice in the rural village areas and do not have access to ambu bags, masks and bulb syringes or suctioning devices. Most did mouth to mouth with some sort of home made barrier so "improvise" was the word of the day when it came to ventilation. We stressed the importance those initial breaths provide opening the airways regardless of the availability of an oxygen source. Looking forward to going to the village to train tomorrow!

Tomorrow, the Helping Babies Breathe team will be training in Elele. Visiting trainers from the US will train health professionals (physicians, nurses, midwives, community health workers) who may be present at birth in a setting without reliable access to resuscitation instruments (equipment, electricity, etc).