CPR & First Aid Class

I attended a CPR and first aid class on Sunday. Our friend Seema organized it and I can't thank her enough for doing so. This was something that I've been thinking about doing since I was pregnant, but for whatever reason never did it.

Seema asked the instructor to tailor the course to be focused on toddlers and children and to put a heavy emphasis on choking. During the course the instructor had visuals to reinforce her points and we also did scenario based role plays. I thought the role playing was crucial and it helped us to know how to react in the case of an emergency. For example she split us up in pairs and asked one pair to leave the room while she set the scene with the other two. Then when we walked in we had to figure out how to react. The goal was to start life saving techniques in under a minute and we all were able to do so!

If you are a dad, mom, or take care of a child I suggest taking a class as soon as possible. Then once the child gets older you can retake it so that you stay current and learn new skills for their age group. This course is good to retake on an annual basis, but realistically I can probably commit to every couple of years. Adit was watching James while I did the class, so he was unable to attend. I think this is something that both parents need training in, so I will schedule him for another course. Perhaps the dads can go together!

So here are a few highlights from what I learned in the class was:
- how to deal with choking (3 methods)
- not to feed baby while driving
- what to do if baby falls
- how to deal with burns
- how to handle a seizure
- that it's imperative to react in under a minute if a child is not breathing.

One point the teacher stressed was that the majority of these cases were incidents, not accidents. Meaning that incidents were foreseeable and could have been prevented, however accidents are not foreseeable.

As I said, I am glad I took this course and I just hope I will never have to use the skills I learned. Have you ever taken a CPR or first aid course? If so what did you think about it and would you recommend it to a new mom or dad?

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Happy reading!

Rachel