APGARS What are they ???

[Alan]

OK so your baby has been born and you are looking at the chart you see something like this
APGAR 8-1 9-5 but what does it mean?
The APGAR scoring system was invented by Dr Apgar in 1953 and is still used all over the world.
The score is used to indicate the wellbeing of a baby shortly after birth and is given as 2 numbers. The first number is the actual score, (this will be discussed a little later), and the second number (often written in superscript) is the time in minutes after birth. So in the example above the score would be 8 at 1 minute after birth and 9 at 5 minutes after birth. If the score is less than 7 at 5 minutes after birth then it would be common to continue scoring every 5 minutes until the score is 7 or above.
The score itself is based on 5 criteria these are
Heart Rate
Respiratory Effort
Muscle Tone
Reflex Response
Colour
Each one of these criteria can have a score of 0, 1 or 2. For example if the heart is not beating it would score 0. Below is the full listing for the APGAR scoring system

Heart Rate....................Score
Absent..........................0
Less than 100..................1
More than 100.................2

Respiratory Effort
Absent..........................0
Slow/Irregular.................1
Good or crying.................2

Muscle Tone
Limp............................0
Some flexion...................1
Active...........................2

Reflex Response
None.............................0
Minimal/Slight grimace.......1
Cough/Sneeze/Pull away......2

Colour
Blue/pale........................0
Body pink hands/feet blue....1
Pink all over....................2

Most babies have blue hands and feet when they are first born and this can be a scary sight especially for first time mums. The hands and feet can stay blue for many hours after birth.