health
by Brian McCann
Saving Babies with St John “A baby’s best chance of survival is for parents to recognise the signs and know how to react,”’ says Kerrie Edwards of St John Ambulance Kerrie, manager of the Gibraltar St John branch, was telling me about the popularity of the recently started First Aid for Babies courses — and how important they are. Around 370 babies are born in Gibraltar each year, and parents have proved keen to learn the basic life-saving skills should something suddenly go wrong. Not just parents, though: “We have grandparents on the courses,” said Kerrie; “also some teenagers who want to be able to help their tiny brother or sister if they are bleeding heavily, have head injuries, burns or febrile convulsions.” When you consider that the course only takes three hours at a cost of a mere £9 (including tea or coffee and biscuits), it’s clear that it represents excellent value, especially when you take into account that they are conducted by trained instructors. Kerrie, who has run the now-volunteer St John since the emergency ambulance service was taken over by the government, told me that whilst much of her work is in fund-rais-
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ing, babies’ first aid courses are being provided at minimal cost to make sure that nobody is excluded because of inability to pay. Classes contain ten trainees, and it was planned to hold them once a month; but in the first month, April, it was necessary to double up
“We want to create a new generation of parents who know how to maintain a baby’s life until professional help arrives”
the sessions, and it seems that more courses will be sought by the public than was anticipated — which pleases Kerrie greatly. “We want to create a new generation of parents who know how to maintain a baby’s life until professional help arrives,” she said. She also pointed out that a lot of the applicants for the courses are men — it seems that in Gibraltar many men now have the role of primary carer in a family. The course is completely practical and includes practice on baby dolls (or manikins) and the chance to see what is happening in computer-simulated babies. The equipment for the course cost St John £2,000, which they feel was an essential investment. It was interesting to learn that applications have also been received from British and northern European people living on the Costa del Sol, which Kerrie is very pleased about as it increases the prospects of the many other courses being well-attended and thus raising more money for St John’s charitable work here.
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • JUNE 2009