The first minutes of life may determine the quality of that life. Prompt, organized, and skilled response to emergencies in this period requires that institutions delivering maternal-infant care have written policies delineating responsibility for immediate newborn care, resuscitation, selection and maintenance of necessary equipment, and training of personnel in proper techniques. These polici...

Approximately 800,000 newborns die annually due to birth asphyxia. The resuscitation of asphyxiated term newly born infants often occurs unexpected and is challenging for healthcare providers as it demands experience knowledge in neonatal resuscitation. Current guidelines focus on extremely and/or very preterm infants; however, the recommendations newborn differ some aspects those (i.e., respir...

The role of the nurse anesthetist as a member of the obstetrical team can be manifold. Not only are we available to assist the obstetrician in providing anesthesia to the mother for the delivery, but often we also are asked to assist in resuscitative procedures for an infant who is expectedly or unexpectedly depressed at birth. The purpose of this article is to review some causes of infant depr...

OBJECTIVE Babies receive oxygen through their umbilical cord while in the uterus and for a few minutes after birth. Currently, if the baby is not breathing well at birth, the cord is cut so as to transfer the newborn to a resuscitation unit. We sought to develop a mobile resuscitation trolley on which newly born babies can be resuscitated while still receiving oxygenated blood and the 'placenta...

Simple low-cost, evidence-based interventions such as clean delivery practices, immediate warming, umbilical cord care, and neonatal resuscitation could prevent 40% to 70% of newborn deaths globally, but many obstacles preclude the provision of those basic interventions for all newborns, particularly in low-resource regions. Global efforts have led to widespread development of neonatal clinical...