Great Western Hospitals helps launch pioneering national newborn life support training

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is set to host the first ever Swindon-based Out-of-Hospital Newborn Life Support (OHNLS) courses in October's ‘Restart a Heart Month’, marking a major milestone in a programme that was first developed and tested in the town before being rolled out nationally.

The Resuscitation Council UK course, developed with support from Dr Sarah Bates, Neonatal Consultant at Great Western Hospitals, has been specifically designed to equip paramedics, community midwives and other healthcare professionals with the skills and confidence needed to care for newborn babies in out-of-hospital settings, including during home births and in ambulances and community environments.

With more women choosing to birth at home, out-of-hospital births can present unique challenges for healthcare professionals, including managing newborn temperature, stabilisation and resuscitation in environments with limited equipment and resources.

The OHNLS course was developed to provide evidence-based training tailored specifically to these situations.

The origins of the programme can be traced back to Swindon, where clinicians identified a gap in training for practitioners attending births outside of hospital. A pilot course developed locally was presented nationally in 2019, winning a national award and helping to secure support from the Resuscitation Council UK to develop a formal training programme.

The course has since been launched nationally by the Resuscitation Council UK and is now returning to its roots, with the first local course inviting healthcare professionals from across the UK to Great Western Hospitals.

Dr Sarah Bates said: "It is exciting to see a programme that started here in Swindon become a nationally recognised course. We identified a need to better support healthcare professionals caring for babies born outside hospital environments and worked with partners across the country to develop a training package that addresses those challenges. To now be hosting the first courses in Swindon and welcoming faculty members from across the UK is a proud moment for everyone involved."

Since the introduction of OHNLS training, ambulance and air ambulance services across the country have made changes to the equipment they carry and the training they provide to staff, helping to improve care for newborn babies.

Keeping a premature baby warm is vital for survival, and thermal care is a major focus of the course.

The Welsh Ambulance Service, in the first year following delivery of its first OHNLS course, saw significant improvements in out-of-hospital newborn care. The rate of babies having their temperature recorded increased from under 10 per cent to 70 per cent, three times as many babies were supported with a specialist warming mattress, and the rate of babies experiencing hypothermia fell from 80 per cent to 20 per cent.

In delivering the course in Swindon, Dr Bates will be joined by Naomi Phillips, a Community Midwife at Great Western Hospitals who became the first midwife in the UK to be selected as an OHNLS instructor. Together, they will deliver the training alongside a faculty of experts from across the country.

Naomi said: "This course has never been more needed in the world of maternity and neonatal services. We're teaching the basics well, building confidence and standardising the approach at a time when more women are choosing to birth outside of hospital. We all want the same goal, and this course is really helping us to move forwards with that."

The course is also supported by faculty lead Camella Main, Lead Midwife with London Ambulance Service NHS Trust. Camella added: "Women who give birth unplanned are more vulnerable and at higher risk of health inequalities, so I'm really proud to bring clinicians, midwives and colleagues from the ambulance service together so that they can go to real scenarios better equipped to give perfect care and achieve better outcomes. The real strength in this course is the different professional groups all coming together."

The Swindon courses represent the latest chapter in a project that began with local innovation and has since grown into a nationally recognised programme helping to improve outcomes for babies and families across the UK every year.