Delivery room resuscitation of the newborn

Expertise in neonatal resuscitation is essential for all hospital personnel involved in the care of newborn infants. The guidelines to resuscitation reviewed here have been established by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association and have resulted in significantly improved training and expertise of delivery room personnel. Although widely accepted, many of these guidelines are only now being rigorously studied in controlled trials. This lack of rigorous testing has raised some questions regarding routine resuscitative practices and indicates that present-day standard therapies must always be under constant review.