Health Education England’s elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh) has worked with The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to develop an elearning programme to support maternity and emergency teams treating unexpectedly unwell babies in community settings.

The Midwifery Identification, Stabilisation and Transfer of the Sick Newborn (MIST) programme is aimed at midwifery and ambulance colleagues to support the treatment plan for newborn babies who are, or have the potential to become, unwell following delivery in a community setting. The resources are designed to equip maternity and emergency teams with the knowledge required to extend care beyond the first minutes after birth, up to and including handover to the neonatal team.

The programme consists of four elearning sessions and covers several clinical scenarios from normal health to significant illness. It is expected that by completing all four sessions within this programme, healthcare professionals will be able to:

• Recognise normal and abnormal infant colour (anaemia and cyanosis)
• Recognise normal and abnormal feeding patterns and abdominal signs
• Support an infant born unexpectedly preterm
• Support a baby born in an unexpectedly poor condition.

Each session will cover identification, management including stabilisation and communication, and transfer to a neonatal unit.

For more information about the programme, including details of how to access the elearning sessions, visit: https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/midwifery-identification-stabilisation-and-transfer-of-the-sick-newborn/.