This CPR and safety course made me feel like a better, more prepared parent

What is it? All-in-One Baby Safety Course with CPR from BabyCenter CoursesOpens a new window

Why I love it: It made taking an infant CPR class easy, even with a busy schedule, since I could watch short sections on-demand when I had time. 

How much is it? $45

Where to find it? BabyCenter CoursesOpens a new window

Don’t judge me, but I’m pregnant with my third child and – eep! – up until recently, I hadn’t taken an infant CPR course. I know it’s important, so I don’t really have a good excuse. I think I just felt so constantly busy with the responsibilities of pregnancy and parenthood that learning this life-saving skill never got crossed off of the to-do list. But as my third LO’s due date approaches, I’ve accepted that I really shouldn’t put it off anymore. I mean, this skill is life-saving, and “I have too much to do already” is really not a valid line of reasoning.

Luckily for me, BabyCenter’s new All-in-One Baby Safety Course with CPROpens a new window just launched, so I leapt at the opportunity to take the class.

(Full disclosure: I was offered access to the course in exchange for writing about it, but the opinions in this piece are my honest review of the course).

The course is led by a top pediatric ER doctor and a BabyCenter parent contributor

C. Anthoney LimOpens a new window, M.D., M.S., the director of pediatric emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Hospitals in New York City, hosts the video lessons with Anna Jimenez Lyle, a BabyCenter parent contributor.

Both Dr. Lim and Anna are warm and inviting, and both have young sons, so they are automatically pretty relatable to new or expecting parents. Dr. Lim is especially good at explaining things in a non judgemental, simple-to-understand way, which is not always an easy quality to find in doctors. Anna asks good questions, many of which were similar to the ones popping into my head as I took the course.

The course is made up of 13 video lessons and 17 PDF downloads

It’s organized into four main sections – first aid, CPR, choking and the Heimlich maneuver, and additional emergency preparedness resources – plus an introduction. There are also four optional quizzes to test your knowledge of the lessons (one at the end of each section).

I found the setup helpful, because each video is about a single topic. That means that you don’t have to watch videos that aren’t of interest to you (as a mom of two, for example, I’ve got my first aid kit pretty much down). The way the lessons are organized also makes it convenient to re-watch the topics that might be more important or more difficult to understand (cough, CPR, cough) to ensure sure you’ve fully absorbed the information. I also liked watching Dr. Lim and Anna perform the basics of CPR and the Heimlich, because the intricacies of those moves can be really hard to visualize if you’re just reading the words in a text format. At the same time, the videos are obviously much more convenient than attending a CPR class IRL – I could do them any time, on my phone, and rewatch at my convenience.

The quizzes, though optional, were a handy way to make sure I had really retained the info in each lesson.

I appreciated that the video instructions for infant CPR and pediatric CPR (for ages 1 and up) were split up so I could prioritize watching the older child videos (my kids are 4 and 18 months) until closer to my due date, when I will revisit the infant video. I also appreciated that in all of the demonstration-focused lessons, Anna and Dr. Lim perform the moves several times, so you can really familiarize yourself with what to do even if you don’t end up rewatching the lessons.

How this course is different than other infant CPR options

There are a few key ways that BabyCenter’s All-in-One Baby Safety Course with CPROpens a new window differs from others I looked into or that my friends have taken:

• The course is robust, going way beyond CPR and choking basics. Yes, you’ll get instructions on how to perform CPR and the Heimlich maneuver on both babies and older chlidren. But the course also covers CPR and water safety, COVID, what to do when your baby has a fever, and so much more (and it was great to get all of it straight from a top pediatric ER doctor). The information is comprehensive, yet not to the point where it felt overwhelming.
• With your purchase of the course, you get free access to a private BabyCenter Community group. In the group, you can ask BabyCenter editors to answer any lingering questions that weren’t addressed in the course – and you can also use it as a place to connect with parents going through the same things you are.
• There are easy-to-follow notes on everything covered in the courseOpens a new window (not just portions of it). These come in the form of PDF downloads that you can print or save for later. It’s nice to know there are notes on each lesson so you can focus on paying attention to each video, rather than taking notes.

The PDF download I found the most helpful was a chart detailing the dosage you should use for OTC medicines like infants’ Tylenol and ibuprofen and how that varies based on your child’s weight. I feel like almost every time I give my kids medicine, I have to look up “pediatric Tylenol dosage chart” on my phone, so I love the idea of printing this out and hanging it in the kids’ bathroom, where we keep the meds.

And even though a lot of the first aid was review for me, I did really like how Dr. Lim offered so many helpful ways to remember important information. For example, he said he uses the acronym “DJL” to know when a child’s cut requires ER attention: This stands for “deep, jagged, or long,” and Dr. Lim said if a cut is any of those things, it’s a sign to head to the emergency room. I remembered what “DJL” meant without looking at my notes, so I clearly really absorbed this information.

I also appreciated that Dr. Lim seemed to keep a wide variety of viewers in mind. For example, one of the ways you can tell that a child needs CPR is because they’ve started turning blue. But since “turning blue” can be hard to distinguish on different skin tones, he gave some tips for checking inside the child’s gums or nail beds for blue coloring. I’d never heard this advice before, and it’s really useful to know.

The only (very minor) downsides

This is a pretty nitpicky complaint, but if you have to take a lot of workplace trainings, this can feel a little reminiscent of those. And while in general I really enjoyed the hosts, I thought there were a few times when Anna talked about her own family a bit more than she needed to in order to set the stage for each topic.

Of course, some people will opt to take an in-person CPR course. That’s certainly not a bad idea, and many people say that practicing with the infant mannequins often found at courses like these can be helpful. That said, I do think that having videos you can watch at your leisure – and rewatch as you need to – can outweigh the benefits of taking an in-person class for some people (myself included). So it’s important to think about your situation and what would work best for you.

You’ll also want to note that access to the course expires after 12 months. Because you might take this class as a first-time parent close to your due date, and then want to retake it when your baby is approaching one and the protocols change, it’s important to remember that access is limited to the year after you purchase the course. That said, you can download the PDFs attached to each lesson and save or print them for later reference, so I would definitely recommend doing that.

Overall, I can’t recommend this course highly enough

Anyone who will be caring for children should take a course like this. It’s an easy way to become a more prepared parent, as it leaves you equipped with information that ranges from helpful to absolutely life-saving. 

At $45, the All-in-One Baby Safety Course with CPROpens a new window is a great value – and it’s super-convenient to have it available as part of your BabyCenter account. My only regret is that it didn’t exist sooner so I could have crossed this off my to-do list long ago!

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