APGAR Score
The first test performed on your newborn, the APGAR, occurs right after your baby's birth. The test was designed to quickly evaluate a newborn's physical condition to determine any immediate need for extra medical care.
The first test performed on your newborn, the APGAR, occurs right after your baby's birth. The test was designed to quickly evaluate a newborn's physical condition to determine any immediate need for extra medical care.
The APGAR score was devised by Virginia Apgar, in 1952. The APGAR is used as a quick abbreviation for: Appearance (skin coloration), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (known medically as "reflex irritability"), Activity (muscle tone), and Respiration (rate and effort).
The APGAR score is determined by evaluating a newborn baby on each of the above 5 criteria with each of the 5 being assessed on a scale from zero to two. The 5 scores are the totaled for a summary score. The resulting Apgar score ranges from zero to 10. The test is usually given to a newborn twice, once at 1 minute after birth and again at 5 minutes after birth.
Scores below 3 are generally regarded as critically low, with 4 to 7 fairly low and over 7 generally normal. If the Apgar score remains below 3 at later times it may be an indication that the child has a greater risk of suffering long term problems.
It's important to keep the baby's Apgar score in perspective. The purpose of the Apgar test is to determine quickly whether a newborn needs immediate medical care and was not designed to make long-term predictions on a child's health, intellectual status or outcome. Few babies score a perfect 10, and perfectly healthy babies sometimes have a lower-than-usual score, especially in the first few minutes after birth. Keep in mind that a slightly low Apgar score (especially at 1 minute) is normal for some newborns, especially those born after a high-risk pregnancy, cesarean section, or a complicated labor and delivery.
