Introduction Respiratory distress (RD) is a common condition for admission of newborns in neonatal care unit (NCU), in both preterm and full-term neonates. Our objective was to describe the clinical features, causes and treatment of RD in full term neonates in a tertiary health center in Yaoundé, the Essos Hospital Centre (EHC). Patients and Method We conducted a cross sectional retrospective study. Full term neonates with RD at EHC from January 2017 to December 2018 were included, assuming clinical signs of RD prior to 48 hours following admission. Factors evaluated: incidence of RD, main etiologies, short term outcomes and risk factors for severity. Data were collected using a chart, then analyzed using software Stata Version 13.Results 186 full term neonates out of 2312 newborn babies admitted in NCU, met the inclusion criteria giving a prevalence rate of RD of 8%. Sex ratio of 2.15 was favoring males; median age at admission was 7.25 hours and 89.2 % were born at a median gestational age of 38 weeks. Clinical signs of RD were dominated by signs of respiratory control with a Silverman score above 4/10 in 64%. The most common etiologies were neonatal infection / pneumonia (45.9%), followed by transient tachypnea. Clinical management was performed using nasal cannula oxygen and antibiotics. Perinatal asphyxia, cyanosis and caesarian section were found to be associated with severe RD in this setting. Mortality rate was 10.4%.Conclusion RD in full term neonates is common in this setting, with neonatal infection as preeminent etiology; the mortality rate is high and the management still inappropriate.