The training for Helping Babies Breathe was held in the Lilongwe, Golden Peacock Hotel.
Usually 30 nurses are trained at each session. They are committed to train six others back in their home districts. There is extensive follow up to see what the success rate really is.
Elder Allen Lyle and Sister Karen Lyle organize these workshops. Medical personel from the USA come to do the actual training.
The course is very hands on.
These steps are routine in U.S.A. health care facilities but they lead to many fatalities if basic procedures are not followed. Ten percent of newborns take in mucus when born or with their first breath worldwide. That is 100 in 1000 births. Of those 100 healthy babies 31 usually die. In third world countries the health worker sees the baby is not breathing and sets it aside while they attend to the mother.
With this basic training the statistics improve greatly. Overall statistics are still being compiled but many individuals have reported that they are now saving 9 out of 10 babies where only half were surviving before the training.
Each participant takes home their own training kit.
One by one they are taught, they practice, they are tested, they train others.
These workers are very serious about their responsibilities and it is a great effort that is sponsored by L.D.S. Charities and the Lyles. Among all the other projects the Lyles have worked on, they have instigated six of these week-long HBB workshops in their 18 months in Zambia and Malawi.
In the evening we stopped in to see Sister Ntuli and Sister Falco. They are posing with our hosts and guides, the Humpherys and Kristi. The young missionaries always cheer us up.
