Your premature baby may be put on a ventilator (also called a respirator), especially if she has RDS. This machine helps your baby breathe. Breathing is very tiring work for your premature baby's underdeveloped lungs, and she may become too tired to breathe on her own. The ventilator gives your baby a mixture of air and oxygen. It can be adjusted to the correct number of breaths per minute and the right pressure to meet your baby's needs. Warm, humid air and oxygen travel through a plastic tube placed in your baby's nose or mouth, through the windpipe, and into her lungs. Your baby may need assisted ventilation until her lungs develop enough to breathe on their own. She may begin to need less help from the ventilator after several days to a week of treatment.
* IMS DDD Lung Surfactant Market Purchases July 1991 through June 2007. On file, Abbott Nutrition Marketing Research.
