Contents

1. Acknowledgements
2. Introduction
   1. About Bettercare
   2. Why decentralised learning?
   3. Free Bettercare Online Learning Platform
   4. Learning programmes
   5. Format of the courses
   6. Contributors
   7. Updating the course material
   8. Contact information
   9. Registration
3. 1 Failure to breathe at birth and resuscitation
   1. Objectives
   2. Assessing the infant at birth
   3. Neonatal resuscitation
   4. Preventing meconium aspiration
   5. Neonatal encephalopathy
   6. Case studies
4. Skills: Neonatal resuscitation
   1. Objectives
   2. Assessing the Apgar score
   3. Giving mask ventilation
   4. Tracheal intubation
   5. Chest compressions
5. 2 Assessing gestational age and size at birth
   1. Objectives
   2. Assessing an infant’s gestational age at birth
   3. Assessing an infant’s size at birth
   4. Grouping infants by their weight for gestational age
   5. Case studies
6. Skills: Gestational age and weight
   1. Objectives
   2. Assessing the gestational age
   3. Measuring weight and head circumference
   4. Plotting weight and head circumference
   5. References
7. 3 The routine care of normal infants
   1. Objectives
   2. Managing normal infants
   3. Common minor problems
   4. Discharging a normal infant
   5. Case studies
8. Skills: Clinical history and examination
   1. Objectives
   2. Introduction
   3. Taking a perinatal history
   4. The physical examination of a newborn infant
   5. The road-to-health booklet
9. 4 Feeding normal infants
   1. Objectives
   2. Introduction to infant feeding
   3. The benefits of breastfeeding
   4. Promoting breastfeeding
   5. Teaching mothers to breastfeed
   6. Managing breastfeeding problems
   7. Formula-feeding newborn infants
   8. The baby friendly initiative
   9. Feeding the HIV-exposed infant
   10. Case studies
10. 5 Care of high-risk and sick infants
    1. Objectives
    2. Classification of infants on the basis of risk
    3. Managing a sick infant
    4. Monitoring a high-risk or sick infant
    5. The management of shock
    6. The management of fits
    7. The management of acidosis
    8. Case studies
11. Skills: Clinical notes and observations
    1. Objectives
    2. Writing good clinical notes
    3. Recording routine observations
    4. Recording fluid intake and output
12. 6 Feeding sick or high-risk infants
    1. Objectives
    2. Fluid requirements
    3. Intravenous fluids
    4. Milk feeds for sick or high-risk infants
    5. Vomiting
    6. Case studies
13. Skills: Feeding sick or high-risk infants
    1. Objectives
    2. Passing a nasogastric tube
    3. Nasogastric feeding
    4. Preparation of formula feeds
    5. Starting a peripheral intravenous infusion
    6. Using a fluid controller
14. 7 Temperature control and hypothermia
    1. Objectives
    2. Measuring body temperature
    3. Heat production and loss
    4. Hypothermia
    5. Pyrexia
    6. Case studies
15. Skills: Temperature control and hypothermia
    1. Objectives
    2. The telethermometer
    3. The closed incubator
    4. The overhead radiant warmer
16. 8 Glucose control and hypoglycaemia
    1. Objectives
    2. Glucose control
    3. Hypoglycaemia
    4. Hyperglycaemia
    5. Case studies
17. Skills: Glucose control and hypoglycaemia
    1. Objectives
    2. Measuring the glucose concentration in capillary blood with reagent strips
    3. Measuring the glucose concentration in capillary blood with a glucose meter
    4. Inserting an umbilical vein catheter
18. 9 Jaundice, anaemia and polycythaemia
    1. Objectives
    2. Jaundice
    3. Haemolytic disease
    4. Phototherapy
    5. Anaemia
    6. Polycythaemia
    7. Case studies
19. Skills: Jaundice and phototherapy
    1. Objectives
    2. Measuring the packed cell volume
    3. Using a phototherapy unit
20. 10 Respiratory distress and apnoea
    1. Objectives
    2. Respiratory distress
    3. Hyaline membrane disease
    4. Wet lung syndrome
    5. Meconium aspiration syndrome
    6. Pneumonia
    7. Pneumothorax
    8. Heart failure and patent ductus arteriosus
    9. Apnoea
    10. Case studies
21. Skills: Respiratory distress and apnoea
    1. Objectives
    2. Using an apnoea monitor
    3. Transillumination of the chest
    4. Emergency needling of a pneumothorax
    5. Inserting a chest drain
22. 11 Oxygen therapy
    1. Objectives
    2. Oxygen therapy
    3. Measuring the amount of oxygen
    4. The advantages and disadvantages of extra oxygen
    5. Administering oxygen safely
    6. Providing continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP)
    7. Case studies
23. Skills: Oxygen therapy
    1. Objectives
    2. Using a flow meter with humidifier
    3. Using a blender or venturi
    4. Using an oxygen monitor
    5. Using a pulse oximeter (oxygen saturation monitor)
    6. Providing nasal cannula oxygen
    7. Providing nasal CPAP
24. 12 Infection
    1. Objectives
    2. Preventing infection
    3. Minor infections
    4. Major infections
    5. Chorioamnionitis
    6. Chronic intra-uterine infection
    7. Syphilis
    8. HIV infection
    9. Case studies
25. 13 Trauma and bleeding
    1. Objectives
    2. Trauma
    3. Bleeding
    4. Case studies
26. 14 Congenital Disorders
    1. Objectives
    2. Introduction to congenital disorders
    3. Common structural congenital disorders
    4. Serious structural congenital disorders
    5. Major neurological defects
    6. Important syndromes
    7. Managing parents of infants with a congenital disorder
    8. Case studies
27. 15 Communication
    1. Objectives
    2. Communication with parents
    3. Parental bonding
    4. Managing the family of a sick or dying infant
    5. Bereavement
    6. Communicating with colleagues at other hospitals and clinics
    7. Transferring newborn infants
    8. Assessing the perinatal health-care status in your region
    9. Case studies