What happens if my child has low Apgar scores?
It doesn’t matter if you start off with a low Apgar score; it’s all what you end up with. Because the Apgar score not only depends on your child, but things that are going on at that time. So if the mother was on medication that could be affecting the baby, then you may have a floppy baby. But when the medications wear off the child is going to be absolutely fine. Or, if you have a low Apgar score to begin with but you start resuscitation and give oxygen or suction, or warm the baby, and your resuscitation is very good, then the baby may end up absolutely fine as well. So you shouldn’t worry about a low Apgar score initially. It all depends on what happens afterwards with the subsequent exams. And Apgar scores alone are not significant for morbidity or mortality later on in life. So Apgar is really just focused on one point in time to help assess our needs at that time. Then we keep evaluating further.
