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Home › Articles › Newborn and Infant Months › A Swirl of Activity

A Swirl of Activity

Your Baby's First Hours

By Melinda Copp

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Now your baby will be tested in a number of ways to make sure his journey into the world was successful and healthy. You have probably heard of these tests and procedures, but understanding exactly what they are and why they're done can help put your mind at ease when the procedures actually start happening.

"Being over 40 and having your first child can be a great joy, but you hear so much about what could go wrong you're kind of freaked out, too," says Grace White, a mom from Brooklyn, N.Y. "My way of dealing with that was to ask, ask, read, then ask more."

Apgar Score
Your child will be tested and graded in a number of ways throughout life – the first is the Apgar score.

"This was named for its creator, Virginia Apgar, and is a test of how well your baby handled labor and delivery," Dr. Bowen says. At one minute after birth, and again at five minutes, your baby's color, breathing, muscle tone, reflex irritability and heart rate will be ranked with a zero, one or two.

Many parents anticipate their newborn's Apgar score as a first sign of how well he or she is doing. "My fianc矷as asking about the Apgar test results and shouted out to me that he got a nine," says White. "We knew 10 was a perfect score, thanks to our research, so we were happy about that."


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