Baby CPR: What Parents Need to Know in an Emergency

If a baby is unresponsive and not breathing normally, it is a medical emergency. Call 999 and start CPR. The ambulance call handler can give you basic life-saving instructions over the phone while help is being sent.

For CPR purposes, NHS guidance describes an infant as a baby under one year old. CPR for babies includes rescue breaths as well as chest compressions because breathing and airway problems are more commonly involved in cardiac arrest in children than in adults.

Reading the steps can help you understand what CPR involves, but it is not a substitute for practical first aid training. The NHS strongly recommends that parents and carers attend a first aid course so they can practise these skills before an emergency happens.

What is baby CPR?

CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

It combines rescue breaths with chest compressions to help move oxygen and blood around the body when someone is not breathing normally and shows no signs of life.

In a real emergency, the most important thing is to act.

If your baby is unresponsive and not breathing normally, call 999 and begin CPR. Do not wait for an ambulance to arrive before starting.

The emergency call handler can talk you through what to do.

First, make sure the area is safe

Before approaching your baby, quickly check that you can do so safely.

The NHS advises checking for hazards such as traffic or electrical equipment.

This does not mean spending valuable time examining the room. It simply means making sure you are not putting yourself or your baby in further danger.

Once it is safe to approach, check whether your baby responds.

Check whether your baby responds

Gently tap your baby’s arm and speak loudly to them.

If your baby responds by moving or otherwise reacting, leave them in the position you found them in if it is safe to do so. Check their condition and get medical help if needed.

If there is no response, shout for help.

You then need to establish whether your baby is breathing normally.

Check your baby’s breathing

Look for movement of your baby’s chest. Listen at their nose and mouth for breathing sounds and feel for air movement against your cheek.

The NHS advises looking, listening and feeling for no more than 10 seconds.

Occasional gasps, infrequent breaths or irregular gasping should not be treated as normal breathing.

If your baby is unresponsive and not breathing normally, call 999 and start resuscitation.

If someone else is with you, ask them to make the emergency call while you begin helping your baby.

Open your baby’s airway

Place your baby on a firm, flat surface.

For a baby under one, NHS guidance says to keep the head in a neutral position and lift the chin to open the airway.

Look inside the mouth for an obvious obstruction. If something is clearly visible and easy to remove, carefully remove it.

Do not blindly sweep your fingers around your baby’s mouth. This could push an object farther into the airway.

If you cannot achieve effective rescue breaths, recheck the head position and airway before moving on.

Give five initial rescue breaths

NHS guidance for an unresponsive baby who is not breathing normally begins with five initial rescue breaths.

With your baby’s head in a neutral position and their chin lifted, take a breath and create a seal with your mouth over your baby’s mouth and nose.

If you cannot cover both at once, the NHS says you can seal your mouth over either the mouth or nose. If using the nose, close the baby’s lips to prevent air escaping.

Blow steadily for about one second, using enough air to make the chest visibly rise.

Remove your mouth and allow the chest to fall.

Repeat until you have given five initial rescue breaths.

The breaths should be controlled. A baby’s lungs are much smaller than an adult’s, so the aim is simply to see the chest rise.

What if the baby’s chest does not rise?

If you are having difficulty getting effective breaths in, the airway may be obstructed.

The NHS advises opening the mouth and removing any visible obstruction, while taking care not to push anything farther into the throat.

Check the position of the head and chin again. A baby’s neck should not be overextended.

You can make up to five attempts to achieve effective breaths.

If the chest still does not rise, move on to chest compressions combined with rescue breaths.

In an emergency, follow the instructions from the 999 call handler as well.

Look for signs of life

After the initial rescue breaths, look for signs of life such as normal breathing, movement or coughing.

Do not count abnormal gasps or infrequent, irregular breaths as normal breathing.

If there are no signs of life, start chest compressions immediately.

If your baby begins breathing normally, they still need urgent medical assessment. Follow the instructions from the emergency services.

How to give chest compressions to a baby

For a baby under one year old, NHS guidance says to use the tips of two fingers on the breastbone in the centre of the chest.

Compress the chest by about 4 cm, which is approximately one-third of the depth of the baby’s chest.

Release the pressure after each compression so the chest can come back up.

Give compressions at a rate of about 100 to 120 per minute.

After 30 chest compressions, give two rescue breaths.

Continue using cycles of 30 compressions followed by two breaths.

The quality of the compressions matters. Press firmly enough to reach the recommended depth while allowing the chest to recoil between compressions.

How long should you continue CPR?

Continue CPR until your baby shows signs of life or qualified medical help arrives and takes over.

Signs of life include normal breathing, coughing or movement.

CPR can be physically and emotionally difficult, particularly when it involves your own baby. Focus on continuing the sequence and listening to the emergency call handler.

Do not stop simply because your baby does not respond immediately.

The British Red Cross notes that you may not see an obvious change while performing CPR, but your actions can still help maintain circulation and oxygen until emergency professionals arrive.

What if you are alone?

If nobody responds when you shout for help and you are alone, current NHS guidance says to continue resuscitation for about one minute before trying to get help, such as by calling 999.

If another person is present, they can call 999 while you start resuscitation.

Emergency situations vary, so follow any instructions given by the emergency call handler.

Having your phone nearby and using speaker mode, if practical, may allow you to continue helping your baby while speaking to emergency services.

What if your baby is unresponsive but breathing?

An unresponsive baby who is breathing normally still needs emergency help.

NHS guidance says that if a child is breathing normally, they should be turned onto their side with their head slightly tilted back to help keep the airway open. Continue checking that they are breathing and get help.

The British Red Cross also advises calling 999 for an unresponsive baby who is breathing.

CPR is for a baby who is unresponsive and not breathing normally. If you are unsure whether your baby’s breathing is normal, the emergency call handler can guide you.

CPR and choking are not the same thing

Choking requires a different first aid response while a baby remains conscious.

A choking baby may be unable to breathe, cry, cough effectively or make noise. First aid for a conscious choking baby involves techniques such as back blows and chest thrusts rather than immediately starting the standard CPR sequence.

If a choking baby becomes unresponsive, the situation changes and resuscitation may be required.

Because choking and CPR procedures are easy to confuse when you are frightened, learning both skills in a practical baby first aid course can be particularly valuable.

Why rescue breaths matter for babies

Adult CPR is often discussed in terms of hands-only chest compressions, but the advice for babies is different.

The NHS specifically recommends CPR with rescue breaths for children because cardiac arrest in children is more likely to be associated with an airway or breathing problem.

For babies under one, the NHS sequence includes five initial rescue breaths followed, when there are no signs of life, by cycles of 30 chest compressions and two rescue breaths.

This is one reason it is useful for parents to learn infant-specific CPR rather than relying on what they may remember about adult CPR.

Should parents take a baby first aid course?

Yes, if you are able to access one.

The NHS highly recommends first aid training for parents and carers because practising the process makes it easier to understand and remember.

A practical course can help you learn how much pressure to use during chest compressions, how to position a baby’s airway, how rescue breaths should look and how to respond to choking.

Organisations including the British Red Cross provide baby and child first aid education and courses.

You do not need to wait until your baby starts crawling or eating solid food. Emergency first aid skills can be useful from the earliest months.

Keep emergency information easy to access

No parent expects to need CPR, and trying to memorise every detail can feel overwhelming.

A few practical preparations can make emergencies easier to manage:

Know that 999 is the UK emergency number.
Make sure anyone regularly caring for your baby knows how to contact emergency services.
Consider taking an infant first aid course together with your partner, grandparents or other regular carers.
Keep your home address and postcode easy for carers to find.
Refresh your first aid knowledge periodically rather than assuming you will remember a course forever.

The aim is not to make everyday parenting feel frightening. It is to reduce the amount you need to work out from scratch if something serious happens.

When to get professional advice

If a baby is unresponsive and not breathing normally, call 999 and start CPR immediately. Do not wait for a GP appointment, NHS 111 response or online advice.

If your baby is unresponsive but breathing normally, call 999 and continue monitoring their breathing while following the emergency call handler’s instructions.

If your baby has had an episode where they stopped breathing, became blue or grey, collapsed, had a seizure or was difficult to wake, seek urgent medical help even if they appear better afterwards.

For non-emergency concerns about your baby’s breathing, health or previous episodes of becoming unresponsive, speak to your GP, health visitor or another qualified healthcare professional.

If you are unsure how you would respond in an emergency, consider taking an accredited baby and child first aid course. Practical training gives you an opportunity to practise CPR techniques safely before you ever need them.