RESUMEN
Philippine statistics show that 66 percent of babies are delivered outside the hospital. Thus, the need for a simple and rapid screening test done immediately after birth to identify those babies who will develop Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) and may subsequently require referral to a tertiary care unit, is evident. Foam test was done on samples of amniotic fluid and gastic aspirate within one hour after collection on 61 deliveries, 35 term and 26 premature. Results of the foan test were correlated with the incidence of RDS. Of the 61 subjects, 39 gave a positive foan test, none of whom developed RDS. Six had an intermediate foam test, also none of whom developed RDS. Results of the foam test on gastric aspirate showed a parallelism with those done on amniotic fluid in 60 out of 61 subjects. Statistical analysis showed that the foam test has a 100 if positive. These data showed that the foam test on gastric aspirate has a high predictive accuracy in the assessment of fetal lung maturity.