Nervous about your first CPR class? Read this first.

Nobody is going to make you perform in front of a room. The class is eight people or fewer, everyone is on the floor with their own manikin at the same time, and the instructor moves between people. If your compressions are too shallow, you'll hear it from someone kneeling next to you, quietly.

There's no written exam to fail. Red Cross certification for these courses is based on demonstrating the skills, and demonstrating them means doing them with coaching until they're right. That's the entire point of the four hours.

You can ask the same question twice. Parents ask about infants constantly — how hard to push, how to hold a baby's head, what choking looks like at eight months old. Ask it. We'd rather answer it four times in class than have you guessing in a kitchen.

Wear something you can kneel in, eat beforehand, and expect to be a little sore in your shoulders the next day. That soreness is the sign you actually did it.