Footnotes

• Contributors JW and SA had joint responsibility writing the first draft, editing the manuscript and approval of the final draft.

• Competing interests JW is an unpaid co-chair of the ILCOR newborn task force and a member of the European Resuscitation Council developing guidelines for newborn resuscitation, both JW and SA are unpaid members of the Newborn Life Support Subcommittee of the Resuscitation Council (UK) developing the UK guidelines for newborn resuscitation.

• Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.