
Can you diagnose this infant with neonatal respiratory distress?
A recently immigrated mother from India presents in preterm labor at 32 6/7 weeks and delivers a vigorous baby whose initial blood culture result is positive at 18 hours of life with gram-negative rods.
The Case
At 32 6/7 weeks, a 1970-g child was born via meconium-stained vaginal delivery to a 37-year-old mother (gravida 2, para 1) who recently immigrated from India. The mother presented with preterm premature rupture of membranes for 11 hours prior to eventual vaginal delivery.
Maternal history was otherwise notable for rubella nonimmunity, advanced maternal age, and a prior history of intrauterine fetal death 4 years prior. Prior to delivery, the mother received one dose of ampicillin given her unknown group B Streptococcus status and a single dose of betamethasone to accelerate fetal lung maturity.
After delivery, the newborn was vigorous, with delayed cord clamping of 1 minute. The Apgar scores were 8 and 8 at 1 and 5 minutes of life, respectively. There was mildly increased respiratory effort in the delivery room, for which continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) respiratory support was begun. The child was brought to the neonatal intensive care unit with CPAP of 5 and 30% fraction of inspired oxygen.
Below, take your best guess at diagnosing this patient.
What is the diagnosis of this case, based on the information provided?
Visit the Contemporary Pediatrics website on Wednesday, September 10, at 12:00 PM EST or later for the full case presentation, differential diagnosis, and correct patient diagnosis.
Thank you for taking this Contemporary Pediatrics poll!
Want more Puzzler case studies?
Newsletter
Access practical, evidence-based guidance to support better care for our youngest patients. Join our email list for the latest clinical updates.

![Jodi Gilman, PhD, on cumulative prenatal adversity linked to adolescent mental health risk Document Jodi Gilman, PhD, on cumulative prenatal adversity linked to adolescent mental health risk Live? Do you want this document to be visible online? Scheduled Publishing Exclude From Home Page Do you want this document to be excluded from home page? Exclude From Infinite Scroll Do you want this document to be excluded from infinite scroll? Disable Related Content Remove related content from bottom of article. Password Protection? Do you want this gate this document? (If so, switch this on, set 'Live?' status on and specify password below.) Hide Comments [Experiment] Comments are visible by default. To hide them for this article toggle this switch to the on position. Show Social Share Buttons? Do you want this document to have the social share icons? Healthcare Professional Check Is Gated [DEV Only]Do you want to require login to view this? Password Password required to pass the gating above. Title Jodi Gilman, PhD, on cumulative prenatal adversity linked to adolescent mental health risk URL Unique identifier for this document. (Do not change after publishing) jodi-gilman-phd-on-cumulative-prenatal-adversity-linked-to-adolescent-mental-health-risk Canonical URL Canonical URL for this document. Publish Date Documents are usually sorted DESC using this field. NOTE: latency may cause article to publish a few minutes ahead of prepared time 2026-01-19 11:52 Updated On Add an updated date if the article has been updated after the initial publish date. e.g. 2026-01-19 11:50 Article Type News Display Label Author Jodi Gilman, Phd > Gilman, Jodi Author Fact Check Assign authors who fact checked the article. Morgan Ebert, Managing Editor > Ebert, Morgan Content Category Articles Content Placement News > Mental, Behavioral and Development Health > Clinical AD Targeting Group Put the value only when the document group is sold and require targeting enforcement. Type to search Document Group Mapping Now you can assign multiple document group to an article. No items Content Group Assign a content group to this document for ad targeting. Type to search Issue Association Please choose an issue to associate this document Type to search Issue Section Please choose a section/department head if it exists Type to search Filter Please choose a filter if required Type to search Page Number Keywords (SEO) Enter tag and press ENTER… Display summary on top of article? Do you want display summary on top of article? Summary Description for Google and other search engines; AI generated summary currently not supporting videos. Cumulative prenatal adversities were linked to higher adolescent mental health risk, highlighting the importance of prenatal history and early clinical monitoring. Abstract Body *********************************************************************************************************** Please include at least one image/figure in the article body for SEO and compliance purposes ***********************************************************************************************************](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0vv8moc6/contpeds/e6097cb5e6d6c028c0d4e9efd069e69fdab6d00b-1200x628.png?w=350&fit=crop&auto=format)






