Background. The 2015 European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Guidelines for Resuscitation and support of transition of babies at birth stress the importance of adequate preparation by the healthcare professionals who are going to receive the newborn immediately after birth in order to avoid preventable neonate deterioration. Midwives and pediatricians are the healthcare professionals in the frontline of neonate reception. Methods. Based on the 2015 ERC guidelines we created a 9-item checklist of indispensable actions for correct preparation for neonate reception after vaginal delivery or cesarean section. 78 midwives and 39 pediatricians were included in this prospective observational study. The impact of prior neonate life support training (NLS) on their performance was also assessed. Results. Regarding preparation for neonate reception, participants performed significantly better when the neonate was delivered by vaginal delivery (mean score 7.21±1.77 vs 5.45±1.55 for cesarean section, p<0.0005). Furthermore, midwives performed significantly better (performance score 6.88±1.87) than pediatricians even when subgroup analysis was performed for residents (5.40±1.59, p=0.002) and consultants (5.46±1.47, p=0.002). Previous NLS training resulted in significantly higher performance scores (6.57±1.81 vs 5.18±1.91 for no NLS training, p=0.004). Conclusions. In the present study midwives performed better than consultant and resident pediatricians in preparing for receiving a neonate immediately after birth and neonatal life support training led to significantly better performance when compared to particiants with no prior NLS training. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess these skills in midwives and pediatricians.