Vasopressin vs. Epinephrine During Neonatal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

When a baby is born with a low heart rate or no heart rate, the clinical team must provide breathing support and chest compressions (what is call cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR). In some situations, the clinical team also need to give medications to help the heart rate increase. During CPR, the most common medication given is called epinephrine. There is another medication called vasopressin that is available that could be beneficial to newborn babies. However, no study has compared epinephrine with vasopressin in the delivery room during neonatal CPR. The current study will be the first trial comparing this two medications during neonatal CPR. The investigators will randomize our hospital to either epinephrine or vasopressin for the duration of one year. Babies will either receive CPR with epinephrine (this will be the control group) or CPR with vasopressin ( this will be the intervention group). The investigators believe that vasopressin may be more helpful to babies with a low heartrate or no heart rate at birth.