Baby & Child Resuscitation Course

Hello my name is Natasha Jones and I am a mum to four beautiful children. During the summer of 2010 my daughter Ava-Mai (who was 11 weeks old at the time) experienced an episode known as Near Miss Cot Death. She stopped breathing and was drifting in and out of consciousness. At the time I had no resuscitation training and it was just my maternal instincts that kept Ava-Mai going.   We had to wait 36 minutes for an ambulance, as co-responders were not sent to under ones by Ambulance Service.

As result of this together with my husband we set up Baby and Child Resuscitation Courses in the New Forest. These are funded by a £10 donation per attendee to cover the cost of the Resuscitation Trainer, the venue hire and publicity.  We are a not for profit voluntary organisation and as organisers we do not take wages, salaries or benefits of any kind.

The course involves a full demonstration of resuscitation and choking techniques for Baby or Infant  (newborn to 1 year old) and Child (1 year old to puberty), then time for the attendees to have a try themselves followed by questions. The course costs £10 per person, which includes handouts covering all aspects of the course, and refreshments.  Payment is required at the time of booking to confirm your place. Babies are welcome but please note we do not provide a sitting service.

I have campaigned to get changes made to the Ambulance Service protocol and these are now in place. I have also worked with the Paediatric Sub-Committee of the Resuscitation Council who developed guidance on what should be taught and listed the core competencies that should be achieved, we use this in our training.  Our training is given by Resuscitation Officers who work at Southampton General Hospital.

In 2014 I won a Venus Award Influential Women of the Year. Then in 2015 I won Tesco Community Mum of the Year Award and received a Point of Light Award from the Prime Minster. I had also worked with and supported St John Ambulance with their Baby CPR Campaigns this year.

I am passionate about parents, grandparents and carers learning these potentially lifesaving skills at very little cost. I have a petition online to have resuscitation as part of antenatal or postnatal care. It will be sent to the Department of Health, along with support from our local MP Dr Julian Lewis. I am asking at every opportunity for people to support us by following this link & signing http://tinyurl.com/cbnrw5t ,please forward to friends & family for them to sign too.