What should you do immediately if an infant is unresponsive and not breathing?

When an infant is unresponsive and not breathing, the immediate response should be to start high-quality CPR. This action is crucial because the infant’s lack of responsiveness and breathing indicates a life-threatening emergency that requires prompt intervention. High-quality CPR focuses on chest compressions that help maintain blood flow to vital organs, including the brain, and increase the chance of survival until emergency medical services can take over.

Starting CPR should be implemented without delay because every moment counts in preventing brain damage or death. For infants, the rhythm of CPR consists of 30 chest compressions followed by 2 rescue breaths, repeated until professional help arrives or the infant shows signs of life.

The other options, while they might play a role in a broader context of assessment and care, do not provide the immediate life-saving intervention required in this situation. Checking for a pulse can cause delays that reduce the chance of survival, and providing breaths or checking the pulse intermittently does not address the urgent need for circulation support through compressions.