Introduction & Objective: Although emergency cesarean section is performed to save mother and neonate life in many cases, but this is not always safe in all cases, especially in elective one. In addition to maternal problems it can increases neonatal morbidity and mortality rate especially in term neonates. One of the most prominent problems in this regard is neonatal respiratory distress following elective cesarean section, which are studied in this research.

Materials & Methods : This was a prospective cohort study. The neonatal respiratory morbidity incidence and admission length between term infants delivered by emergency and elective cesarean section were evaluated and the results were compared between two studied groups(200 cases in each group).

Results: Infants delivered by elective cesarean section had an increased rate of respiratory complication compare to infants born by emergency cesarean section (8.5% vs. 3.5%   p<0.05). Comparing with the former group the latter group had longer hospital stay that wasn’t statistically significant.

Conclusion: Elective cesarean section increases neonatal respiratory morbidity significantly.