Giving the baby's mother glucocorticoids speeds the production of surfactant. For very premature deliveries, a glucocorticoid is given without testing the fetal lung maturity. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), Royal College of Medicine and other major organizations have recommended antenatal glucocorticoid treatment for women at risk for preterm delivery prior to 34 weeks of gestation. Multiple courses of glucocorticoid administration, compared with a single course, do not seem to increase or decrease the risk of death or neurodevelopmental disorders of the child. In pregnancies of longer than 30 weeks, the fetal lung maturity may be tested by sampling the amount of surfactant in the amniotic fluid by amniocentesis, wherein a needle is inserted through the mother's abdomen and uterus. Several tests are available that correlate with the production of surfactant. These include the lecithin-sphingomyelin ratio ("L/S ratio"), the presence of phosphatidylglycerol (PG), and, more recently, the surfactant/albumin (S/A) ratio. For the L/S ratio, if the result is less than 2:1, the fetal lungs may be deficient in surfactant. The presence of PG usually indicates fetal lung maturity. For the S/A ratio, the result is given as milligrams of surfactant per gram of protein. A S/A ratio less than 35 indicates immature lungs, between 35-55 is indeterminate, and greater than 55 indicates mature surfactant production (correlating with an L/S ratio of 2.2 or greater).
Infant respiratory distress syndrome
Alveolar capillary dysplasia
Neonatal sepsis
Neonatal meningitis
Shaken baby syndrome
Apnea of prematurity
Transient tachypnea of the newborn
Omphalitis of newborn