Resuscitation of Term Infants in the Delivery Room

The majority of newborn infants make the transition from fetal-to-neonatal live without help. However, around 20% of newborn infants fail to initiate breathing at birth. In these cases, the clinical team has to provide respiratory support, which remains the cornerstone of neonatal resuscitation. This chapter will discuss respiratory support during neonatal resuscitation in both term and preterm infants. The chapter will discuss the respiratory fetal-to-neonatal transition, use of oxygen, mask ventilation and their pitfalls, the application of sustained inflation, positive end expiratory pressure, continuous positive airway pressures, and whether extremely low birth weight infants should be intubated immediately after birth or supported noninvasively.