Prolonged Inspiration Method Practice Training for Neonathologists has been Held as Part of “BDayVyklyk: First Breath” Project

On April 11, 2019, a practice training in the prolonged inspiration method using the NeoPuff TMRD-900 infant breath resuscitator was held on the base of the Kyiv Perinatal Centre with the support of the Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and NZ Tekhno. 9 neonathologists took part in the training event, coming from obstetric establishments that had received these devices as part of the “BDayVyklyk: First Breath” project, hosted by the Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace web portal.

The BDayVyklyk project was started in July 2017, initiated by young Ukrainian Kateryna Sadova who called on her birthday upon all those who care to donate for the purchase of vital medical equipment instead of birthday presents, and to give preterm babies a chance to survive and grow healthy. In 1.5 years, the Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace has collected UAH 1 128 285 and purchased breath resuscitators for 9 the Victor Pinchuk Foundation’s Cradles of Hope partner centres operating in the Ivano-Frankivsk, Sumy, Ternopil, Odessa, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky and Kropyvnytsky oblast perinatal centres and in the Chernihiv and Uzhgorod city maternity homes. Over that period, almost 1000 preterm infants have received help with the use of the Neopuff breath resuscitators.

The Neopuff device is intended to treat infants’ breath disorders in the way of generating a continuous positive pressure in airways onsite in delivery rooms. The resuscitator allows carrying out the Sustained Lung Inflation manoeuvre that is widely used in European countries and in the US. In Ukraine, this method was first introduced by specialists of the Kyiv Perinatal Centre and the Kharkiv Oblast Clinic Hospital Perinatal Centre. Their experience witnesses that thanks to this manipulation within the first, gold-worth minutes of life, the need to provide the classical artificial lung ventilation with a baby’s trachea intubation is reduced, there is less need to use an expensive surfactant, and the length of infants’ receiving breath support is shorter. Respectively, this reduces the number of complications related to a long artificial lung ventilation.

The exchange of experience and acquired knowledge between neonathologists regarding the use of this method is of extreme importance for its further efficient introduction and achieving better results in nursing preterm babies, and therefore the Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace along with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and NZ Tekhno have organized and held for the first time a joint practice training with the aim of improving the doctors’ skills.

The “BDayVyklyk: First Breath” is underway now. It is aiming to raise funds and purchase breath resuscitators for 7 more obstetric medical establishments. To donate to the project, please follow the link.