Does a baby learn to make its own surfactant if it is born with respiratory distress syndrome?

Yes: With rare exceptions, all babies have the ability to make their own surfactant, even if they have not done so prior to birth. Once born, the surfactant system is activated, even in extremely preterm infants, and they will start to make their own surfactant within several hours. There are rare genetic conditions where the baby can never make their own surfactant.

Yes: The baby is born with surfactant and continue to produce it after delivery. Premature babies have a huge deficiency of it and run into the respiratory distress syndromes, requiring artificial instillation of surfactant via endothracheal tube once or twice shortly after delivery. Some of them can't recover completely and later develop chronic lung disease with poor structured lungs and pulm.Vessels.