About

About eHBB

In sub-Saharan Africa, intrapartum asphyxia accounts for the deaths of around 280,000 babies per year.

Helping Babies Breathe SM is an initiative of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), in consultation with the World Health Organization (WHO), and in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development, Save the Children/Saving Newborn Lives, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Laerdal Medical AS, and a number of other global health organizations.

Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) is a global neonatal resuscitation training program considered the gold standard for training birth attendants in low-resource settings.

With the help of, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), particularly through their support for The Saving Newborn Lives Program(SNL) and funding initiatives such as Saving Lives at Birth, Grand Challenges, Grand Challenges Canada, and Grand Challenges Africa. As well, the Survive and Thrive Global Developmental Alliance (S&T GDA) allowed for HBB to be launched in 2010 as the first of a series of evidence-based maternal and newborn education programs designed to build capacity for high-quality, evidence-based, respectful maternal and newborn care among health care providers (HCPs) in LMICs.

From 2010-2015, Helping Babies Breathe® rolled out among ~400,000 birth attendants in 80 countries.

HBB training improves the knowledge, skills, and ability of birth attendants to perform neonatal resuscitation. The recent WHO update to the Essential Newborn Care (ENC) Course ensures that all health care providers can receive evidence-based training on newborn resuscitation and care.