Resuscitation Newborn, Level 2

What it covers

A birth in a GP practice is rare and almost never planned: the car park, a waiting room, a home visit with no midwife yet on the road. This course takes the Resuscitation Council UK newborn sequence in the order the guideline gives it, from warmth and the cord to five inflation breaths and compressions, and says plainly what a surgery holds and what it does not. Opening the lungs is the treatment you give before the crew arrives; the 999 call brings the team and the transfer, and the handover, record and debrief follow.

Who it is for

Clinical staff who could meet a newborn at the surgery: GPs and trainees, practice nurses and nurse practitioners, healthcare assistants, paramedics and attached midwives. The Level 1 outcomes are included.

By the end you will be able to

• Keep a newborn warm from the first seconds, and say what cold costs.
• Manage the cord, and assess tone, breathing and heart rate without a monitor.
• Open the airway, give five inflation breaths, and judge whether they worked.
• Ventilate in air, and start compressions at the point the guideline sets.
• Pick the sequence a newborn or an older infant needs, and where a defibrillator belongs.
• Use what a surgery holds, hand over well, and close the event afterwards.

Modules

1. A birth nobody planned
2. Opening the lungs
3. When the heart stays slow
4. Kit, the call and afterwards

This is the knowledge part of newborn life support. The mask, the bag and the two thumbs are learned with a trainer on a newborn manikin. The Resuscitation Council UK asks for that at least once a year.

Content mapped to the learning outcomes of the Core Skills Training Framework (England) v1.1: Resuscitation, Level 2, Newborn Basic Life Support. Law named: Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, regulation 12.

Sources

• Newborn resuscitation and support of transition of infants at birth Guidelines (Resuscitation Council UK, published 27 October 2025)
• Newborn life support algorithm 2025 (Resuscitation Council UK, updated March 2026)
• Out-of-hospital newborn life support algorithm 2025 (Resuscitation Council UK)
• Minimum equipment for newborn resuscitation and the support of transition of infants at birth in the pre-hospital setting (Resuscitation Council UK Newborn Life Support Subcommittee, January 2023)
• Paediatric basic life support Guidelines (Resuscitation Council UK, published 27 October 2025)
• Quality Standards: Primary care (Resuscitation Council UK, published November 2013, last updated May 2020)
• Quality Standards: Primary care equipment and drug lists (Resuscitation Council UK)
• GP mythbuster 1: Emergency care in general practice (Care Quality Commission)
• Is your baby or toddler seriously ill? When to get urgent medical help (NHS.UK)
• Core Skills Training Framework (England) Statutory/Mandatory Subject Guide v1.1, June 2021 (Skills for Health), Resuscitation: Key Learning Outcomes, Level 2 Newborn Basic Life Support (archived copy)
• Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, regulation 12: safe care and treatment
• Postnatal care, NG194 (NICE, published 20 April 2021, last updated 9 June 2026), recommendations 1.4.4 and 1.4.9 on symptoms and signs of illness in babies

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GPAtlas is not accredited, verified or endorsed by Skills for Health or NHS England. Acceptance of this training is at the discretion of your employer, who remains responsible for confirming it meets local requirements. Your employer may require more frequent refreshers than the guidance period; the practice's own policy applies. Some pictures and films in our courses, and the film narration, are made with AI tools. We check every one for accuracy before we publish it.