All About APGAR Scores

If you've had a baby born prematurely or in the NICU, you still might not have heard of APGAR scores.  Medical personnel use theses scores, taken at 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth, to determine what next steps if any need to be taken to stabilize a newborn. My wife was a NICU nurse and so she is very familiar with the scoring system and, in fact, it was one of the first things she wanted me to find out from our son's nurse.  You see, knowing these scores my wife, and medical staff, would know his health at birth (and due to the fact that my son had problems breathing when he was born, my wife was very interesting in his scores).

What is an APGAR score?