Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is now preparing to host the programme in the town where the idea originated.
The Out-of-Hospital Newborn Life Support (OHNLS) course will be delivered in Swindon during Restart a Heart Month in October.
Run by Resuscitation Council UK, it trains paramedics, community midwives and other healthcare professionals who may need to care for newborn babies outside hospital.
The programme was developed with support from Dr Sarah Bates, Neonatal Consultant at Great Western Hospitals, after clinicians in Swindon identified a gap in existing training.
A locally developed pilot was presented nationally in 2019, where it won an award and helped secure support from Resuscitation Council UK to develop a formal national programme.
Healthcare professionals from across the UK are now expected to travel to Great Western Hospitals for the training.
Dr 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.”
The training covers challenges clinicians may face when babies are born outside hospital, including at home, in ambulances and elsewhere in the community.
This can include situations where specialist equipment and other resources normally available in hospital are limited.
Keeping newborn babies warm, particularly those born prematurely, is among the areas covered by the programme.
Figures provided by Great Western Hospitals suggest changes followed the introduction of the training by the Welsh Ambulance Service.
In the first year after its first OHNLS course, the proportion of babies having their temperature recorded increased from less than 10 per cent to 70 per cent.
Three times as many babies were supported with specialist warming mattresses, while the proportion experiencing hypothermia reportedly fell from 80 per cent to 20 per cent.
Ambulance and air ambulance services elsewhere in the country have also made changes to equipment and staff training following the introduction of OHNLS.
Great Western Hospitals community midwife Naomi Phillips will join Dr Bates in delivering the Swindon course.
She became the first midwife in the UK to be selected as an OHNLS instructor.
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 programme brings together midwives, ambulance clinicians and other healthcare professionals to train for potentially life-critical situations involving newborn babies.
Faculty lead Camella Main, Lead Midwife with London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said:
“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 bring the project back to where it began, years after local clinicians first identified the need for specialist training for professionals caring for babies born outside hospital.
I’ve deliberately avoided describing the programme itself as “lifesaving” in the copy unless that wording is explicitly supported by the Trust. The measurable Welsh results give the story a strong impact point without overstating what can be attributed directly to the course.
