Apgar score was proposed by an American doctor anesthesiologist Virginia Apgar in 1952. Initially, it was intended for nurses to quickly determine what the baby should be given more attention. The state of the baby's health is evaluated on five indicators: breathing, heart rate, muscle tone, reflexes and skin color.
Infant is not subjected to special tests, it simply examining and assigning 0,1 or 2 points on each of the signs. Evaluation of "two" in the delivery room, as opposed to school, considered the highest and means that the feature is pronounced. 1 point - a sign is weak, 0 points - there is no sign. In the best of circumstances the total score is 10 points.
Scoring is usually carried out in the first and fifth minutes of life. Therefore, according to Apgar score is always two, for example 8/9 points. Rarely, if ever it happens, babies are gaining 10 points in the first minutes of life. The condition of children who gain results from 7 to 10 points, it is considered good or excellent, and they usually need only routine care; those who scored between 4 and 6 points, are in satisfactory condition, and it may only require some resuscitation procedures; and those whose result is below 4 requires immediate assistance for the salvation of their lives.
So, Apgar estimated overall baby at birth to 5 signs: heart activity, breathing rate, muscle tone, reflexes and skin color.
The obtained scores baby at birth can be estimated as:
10-7 - Optimal
5-6 - Light variations in health status
3-4 - Average variations in health status
0-2 - Strong variations in health status
A low score on this scale can be associated with simultaneous situation at birth (acute hypoxia or asphyxia) or chronic fetal state (chronic hypoxia) and physiological immaturity. The most common cause of low Apgar scores is becoming hypoxia - a pathological condition associated with oxygen deficiency of the child during pregnancy and childbirth. Oxygen starvation causes a change in many bodily functions. Less commonly, low Apgar score in the child revealed signs of physiological immaturity, the main feature of which is lethargy, passivity, child suspiciously quiet (for example, does not respond to a dirty diaper, long sleep, there requires less frequent than every 3-4 hours) revealed a decrease in muscle tone.
At low Apgar scores at 1 minute of the baby's life is important positive trend (increase of 2 or more points) to 5 minutes of life. In this case, with high probability we can speak of a favorable outcome. A child with a low Apgar score in the hospital requires special medical attention. Perhaps it will take some medication and medical follow up.
Parents should not be taken Apgar score as a kind of evaluation of the newly born child or his mental faculties. As proof of these words, studies have been conducted, which showed that the relationship between low Apgar evaluation and further development of the child is not present.
