Expecting a baby can be exciting and frightening as future parents are confronted with much new knowledge about pregnancy and delivery, which is often not so easy to understand.
If this is your first pregnancy, one of the things you may encounter when browsing about this new journey you are on is the Apgar score. And it’s normal for you to feel confused and anxious when hearing about new terms you know nothing about, especially when they include numbers and high and low scores. However, this scoring system is a regular part of a newborn assessment, and you shouldn’t worry about it.
A nurse or doctor will often inform the labor room of the baby’s Apgar score following birth. Even if some medical staff is attending to the mother, this lets everyone else know how the infant is doing. So, you may hear these numbers once you deliver your baby. At that moment, you should be aware that they are just one of many various evaluations that healthcare professionals may utilize. And even if it is a low score, you shouldn’t stress about it.
And if you want to worry less, you should learn more about this topic. Medical professionals at Trogolo Obstetrics and Gynecology in Jacksonville are here to help you and answer your questions about the Apgar score chart and newborn assessment.
What is the Apgar Test?
Healthcare workers assess a newborn baby’s capacity to adapt to living outside the womb momentarily after delivery. They check the infant for indications of discomfort and any noticeable anomalies.
To simplify things, the Apgar test was created by anesthesiologist Dr. Virginia Apgar in 1952 at Columbia University.
The Apgar score is a quick way for medical personnel to evaluate a newborn’s general health and how well they handled childbirth.
Medical experts use this Apgar scoring system to report an infant’s general health. A low score indicates that the infant needs breathing assistance or has cardiac issues.
In individual case evaluations, the score can aid in identifying a baby’s unique medical requirements and highlighting areas in which maternity care delivery systems need to be improved.
How Does Apgar Scoring Works?
Dr. Virginia Apgar wanted to help her coworkers, so she used her surname to create an acronym for five categories that are used for the newborn assessment.
- A stands for appearance and skin color
- P stands for pulse
- G stands for grimace or reflexes
- A stands for activity
- R stands for respiration
A newborn can get a score of 0, 1, or 2 for each category, depending on its condition. Scores from each category are added, and the final score is called the Apgar score.
The maximum a baby can get is 10; however, that’s extremely rare as most infants usually have blue hands and feet closely after birth, so they can’t get the maximum for appearance.
Normal Apgar Score
Every parent is curious to know what is considered a normal Apgar score, which is a score from seven to ten. If a newborn scores seven to ten, the baby is in good health.
A score below seven, up to four, shows that the newborn requires medical help, while a score from three to zero is considered a low and concerning score.
It’s important to acknowledge that the Apgar test is done 1 minute after the birth and a second time after 5 minutes. So, a low score after a minute doesn’t always mean that the baby is in danger or will have health problems in the future. In most cases, babies with a lower score at the first minute have a normal one at five minutes.
However, if a score is still low after 5 minutes, there’s a possibility of severe health problems or death. Also, the test is repeated every 5 minutes if the average score is below 7.
The Apgar Score Chart
A: Appearance
- 0: blue, gray, or pale
- 1: body pink, but hands and feet blue
- 2: pink all over
P: Pulse
- 0: lacking
- 1: less than 100 beats/minute
- 2: more than 100 beats/minute
G: Grimace (response to stimulus)
- 0: lacking
- 1: facial movement
- 2: cough, sneeze, or cry
A: Activity
- 0: limp or loose
- 1: limbs flexed
- 2: a lively movement
R: Respiration
- 0: lacking
- 1: irregular, feeble crying
- 2: good, solid cry
The ratings are recorded at one and five minutes, according to the Apgar score chart. It is so that medical personnel can intervene or intensify existing interventions if a baby’s scores are poor at one minute.
For some newborns, it is anticipated to have a lower rather than normal Apgar score. And it’s often in situations like these:
- If a baby is premature.
- If a baby is born with cesarean delivery.
- If it was a complicated delivery.
- If there were fluids in the baby’s airways.
- If it was an emergency delivery.
- If the pregnancy was considered to be high-risk.
Drawbacks of Apgar Scoring
It is crucial to remember that the Apgar scoring system has some restrictions. It only captures an infant’s physiological state at a certain moment, and an infant’s score may vary depending on their physiological maturity at birth.
Healthcare practitioners do not utilize Apgar scores, particularly 1-minute scores, to predict baby outcomes, even if the score may be used for newborn assessment or its reaction to resuscitation.
The Apgar scoring helps let medical professionals know how a newborn is doing immediately. Still, it typically doesn’t indicate how healthy a baby will be in the long run.
The Apgar score is also arbitrary because a person gives it. Because of this, a scoring system like this is simply one of several tests performed to estimate a newborn’s overall health.
It’s good to notice that recent discussions in neonatal health have also focused on whether “pink all over” is a reliable predictor of health for newborn babies of color.
Many healthcare providers need clarification regarding the color component of the Apgar scoring system, particularly for newborns of color. It’s because often babies of color can’t get a normal Apgar score due to color assessment, even though they are healthy.
The hands and feet should be examined by medical personnel for pinkness rather than the infant’s entire body, according to certain updated versions of this scoring system.
Final Words
A rapid assessment method used by medical practitioners to characterize a baby’s general health shortly after birth, like the Apgar test, is a highly valuable tool. However, it shouldn’t scare you as this scoring system alone has minimal prognostic significance for the baby’s long-term health, despite being helpful in tracking and communication among medical personnel.
Furthermore, some factors that make up the score may be subjective. Because of this, professionals frequently employ extra evaluation measures to estimate a baby’s general health.
If you are expecting a baby shortly and have many more questions regarding pregnancy and delivery, we know how you feel.
Our clinic has the best practice regarding Obstetrics in Jacksonville, Florida, and we are here to help you. Call us today to book your consultation with our professionals to get all your questions answered.
