Infant CPR classes in the Bay Area.

For new parents, the right course is the American Heart Association (AHA) Heartsaver Pediatric First Aid CPR AED. It covers infant, child, and adult CPR plus choking relief and basic first aid. It is the same standard daycares, nannies, and babysitters are typically asked to hold. Skip the generic 30 minute online "awareness" courses, they do not include the hands-on skills check that makes the training stick.

BLS (Basic Life Support) is a different, more clinical course aimed at healthcare providers. Unless your job requires it, Heartsaver is the right call.

The four common paths in San Francisco, Marin, the Peninsula, and the East Bay:

• Hospital childbirth programs. UCSF, CPMC, Stanford, Kaiser, John Muir, and Alta Bates run periodic infant CPR classes for expecting families. Limited seats, often booked out 2 to 3 months in advance.
• Red Cross and community centers. Group classes around $90 to $150 per person. Good content, but classroom format with 10 to 20 strangers and shared manikins.
• Fire department public classes. SFFD, Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda County stations occasionally host free or low cost community CPR. Schedules are inconsistent.
• In-home instruction. An AHA-certified instructor comes to your home, trains the adults who will actually care for your child, and issues certification cards on the spot. This is what we include in the Before Baby Visit.

• Infant CPR with compressions and rescue breaths on a real manikin.
• Child CPR (1 year through puberty) with proper hand placement.
• Choking relief for a conscious and unconscious infant and child.
• AED use, including pediatric pads and pad placement on a small chest.
• Recognition of when to call 911 and what to say to dispatch.
• A skills check by the instructor and an AHA eCard within 24 hours.

If the class is lecture only with no hands-on manikin time, it is not certifying you for anything useful. Walk out.

For families on the Before Baby Visit, the AHA Heartsaver online portion is completed by each adult on their own time (3 to 5 hours, self-paced). When we arrive, we run the in-person skills session in your home with infant and child manikins, an AED trainer, and choking simulators. Everyone in the household, parents, grandparents, nanny, gets certified the same day and receives an AHA eCard.

Pairing CPR with a CPST car seat install and a personalized child proofing plan in a single visit is what makes the certification actually stick. You learn it in the room where you will use it.