Only one in four parents in West Yorkshire know how to give CPR to babies
Research from St John Ambulance today revealed that seven in ten parents in West Yorkshire were scared by giving their child first aid in an emergency.
Today at the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds St John's Ambulance are holding free CPR demonstrations to help teach parents how to administer this life saving skill on their own children.
This comes alongside the shocking research which also shows that nearly 25% of us have never learnt how to administer first aid on children or babies yet 70% of admitted that having an unconscious child would be the most frightening thing to happen.
Radio Aire spoke to Julie Homles a schools and community trainer for St John Ambulance who's been involved in running these sessions for parents:
"We're available for people to talk to us. We're also showing people through small demonstrations how to cope if their baby was choking, or unconscious or needed CPR. So we're showing people what to do and letting them have a go for themselves."
"We don't want to frighten people but its definitely a life skill that the more people that know it, the less chance there is of something going wrong because people can act immediately. So I do think it's really important that parents at least have that little bit of knowledge."
"With babies the hand positioning is different. With adults we do 30 chest compressions and 2 rescue breaths. With babies we need to give them 5 breaths first before we start on those chest compressions. So it is slightly different than what we do for an adult."
"If you don't do anything, and the babies not breathing, then the brains not getting oxygen. The importance of CPR is getting oxygen to the brain. If you call an ambulance, the NHS are brilliant and talk you through it."
"Chop up your child’s food quite small. Especially things like grapes and sausages. Chop them into nice long thin places."