BLSO^SM Provider Course Overview

Basic Life Support in Obstetrics (BLSO) is designed to equip first responders and students with the skills needed to assist in normal and emergency obstetric situations.

The following topics and learning activites represent an example of the BLSO Course experience.

Normal Labor

• Introduction to normal labor
• View video of normal labor
• Practice normal delivery with manikins

Emergent Prenatal Assessment

• Minilecture
• Practice taking history, maternal exam and listening to fetal heart with a Doppler stethoscope or fetoscope 

Saving the Life of the Mother: Postpartum Hemorrhage and Maternal Resuscitation

• Mini-lecture
• Practice PPH resuscitation and 4 Ts with fundal massage on mannequin using models for firm (hard ball in sock) and boggy (rice in sock) uteri 
• Practice trauma resuscitation with manikins

Malpresentations

• Mini-lecture
• Using manikins, practice recognition of most common malpresentations (transverse lie, occiput posterior, breech, brow, compound or face presentation) and how to manage in pre-hospital setting with emphasis on breech 

Shoulder Dystocia

• Mini-lecture
• Review HELP-R (the ALSO® HELPE-RR mnemonic simplified for BLSO™) 
• Using manikins, practice maneuvers for shoulder dystocia

Hypertensive Emergencies in Pregnancy

• Mini-lecture
• Case discussion of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia case

Preterm Labor and Premature Rupture of Membranes (PROM)

• Mini-lecture
• Case discussion of PTL and PROM

Saving the Life of the Baby: Neonatal Resuscitation

• Mini-lecture
• Case based small group practice with neonatal resuscitation using infant manikins (warming, drying, stimulating, skin to skin under blanket with mom, early breast feeding, basic Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) assessment and resuscitation if equipment available)

Labor Dystocia

For medical students

• Mini-lecture
• Case discussion of labor dystocia (failure to progress and arrest of descent)

Electronic Fetal Monitoring

For medical students

• Slides to add to Normal Delivery workstation
• Fetal heart tracing review in small group simulations of normal delivery