Five days after Rachel Davidson attended the first aid class for parents, her three-year old daughter Holly started to choke while eating dinner.
The 33-year old mum said she was ‘absolutely terrified’ when she turned to talk to her daughter and found her ‘clutching her throat and her eyes were rolling. She was gasping for breath.’
Despite her fears, Rachel says that her training kicked in automatically and it was if the course tutor was ‘talking me through it in my mind.’
Rachel laid Holly over her arm with her head slightly tiled, and hit her with sharp blows between the shoulder blades. The Yorkshire pudding soon became dislodged and ‘popped’ out.
Although Rachel admitted they were all in ‘shock’ for a few hours after the occurrence, she added that Holly was now fine and ‘back to her old self, running around at 100 miles an hour.’
‘A pound doesn’t even buy a cup of coffee these days, but spending a pound doing a course like this can save a life.’
She also revealed that she dreads to think what could have happened had she not been on the course, and was fortunate the learning was still fresh in her mind, allowing her to ‘instinctively’ know how to help her daughter.
Rachel has taken first aid courses in the past with work, but chose to take the local 2-hour long course as it was specially tailored to parents’ needs. As a mother of two – she also has five-month old Bethany – Rachel believes that ‘attending courses like this should be compulsory for parents.’
Caroline Porter, service manager at the Skipton children’s centre where the course was held, said: ‘The courses are specifically tailored to people’s fears as to what they might have to deal with. It’s about giving parents the skills they need to keep their children safe.
‘A pound doesn’t even buy a cup of coffee these days, but spending a pound doing a course like this can save a life.’
Do you agree with Rachel? Should first aid courses for parents be compulsory? Is there anything similar available where you are?