• BLSO 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 activities represent an example of the BLSO Course experience.

    As of 9/28/2022, there is no CME credit associated with the BLSO Course.

    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 a pre-hospital setting with an emphasis on the 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 a blanket with mom, early breastfeeding, 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

    Read a case study to learn how BLSO prepared students to offer better OB emergency care.

    Questions?

    Email: also@aafp.org
    Phone: (800) 274-2237, ext. 7506