All our childcare staff at Snapdragons are trained in Paediatric First Aid and even staff with non-childcare roles are welcomed on the training. In fact, three of our nurseries are now proud holders of Millie’s Mark Accreditation which means that ALL members of staff, from childcare practitioners and lunchtime assistants through to chefs, the maintenance team and office staff are trained in Paediatric First Aid. Snapdragons Weston completed Millie’s Mark last year and they’ve now been joined by our settings in Atworth and Grosvenor as we roll the programme out across our other sites.

Our colleague Hayley, the Admin at Snapdragons Broadwood, could never have imagined that her decision to attend Paediatric First Aid training at work would end up saving her own baby’s life. Hayley was on maternity leave after baby Brodie was born prematurely in the summer. After a stay in NICU at the RUH in Bath, Brodie was finally home and Hayley felt ready to take him on his first outing. Together they popped to the vet’s to pick up some medication for the family pet and, as they left, Brodie suddenly started crying uncontrollably then went limp.

As she told an ITV news reporter “He just stopped and went floppy. He was white, blue, black – a horrible colour”. She rushed him back into the vet’s shouting for help, then her training kicked in and she started to perform the specialist CPR for young babies that she had learned on the Paediatric First Aid course at the nursery. Her quick action kept Brodie alive until the ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over.

Hayley is so relieved she opted to do the training and has now launched a petition calling on the government to make paediatric first aid mandatory for new parents. "I just think it's better to have the knowledge than not, which is why I opted to have the training - and I am so relieved that I did it."

“I’m appealing for the government to introduce mandatory paediatric first aid for all new parents. Approx. 5% to 10% of the newly born population require some degree of active resuscitation at birth and SIDS is the leading cause of death among infants. More than 5 million deaths occur worldwide each year. We can help prevent this by providing new parents with the tools they need to save their baby just like I did.”

After Hayley and Brodie’s traumatic experience we all share in the family’s relief and joy that this terrifying incident had a happy outcome, and we are so glad that Hayley made the choice to take paediatric first aid training.

If you would like to support Hayley’s call for first aid training for new parents, sign her petition at Change.org.

As part of our Millie’s Mark Accreditation we offer Paediatric First Aid training to parents so look out for your invitation to attend.