The ethics of delivery-room resuscitation.

ABSTRACT

Perinatal care continues to improve and the number of extremely preterm babies delivered increases. What is the outcome for those babies? Under what circumstances should we not initiate resuscitation or under what circumstances should we discontinue support? How accurate and predictive are the data we have and how can these be improved? Who should make the decisions and how should they be made? Should we follow different guidelines in different settings? The following narrative will examine some of these questions but cannot answer them all.