Everyone who gets pregnant, or gives birth wants their baby to be healthy in the long run. When you are pregnant you take prenatal vitamins, take tests, get shots, and undergo ultra sounds all to see if you are your baby are okay, and how you two are holding up. After you give birth the testing does not end. There are test to see if you are okay, and tests to see if your baby is okay.
Prenatal care and even prenatal tests are important in your child’s safety and health at his or her birth. Prenatal vitamins will ensure that you and your baby get what you need. Other things that will ensure that you baby is healthier that it could be is not to smoke, drink, or even do drugs while you are pregnant because that can cause problems and addictions when you child is born.
The most important test that your baby can get is given one minute after the birth. This test is called the APGAR score. They rate you baby in several categories right after birth to see if you child needs more medical attention.
The APGAR score is the first test given one minute after birth, and then again five minutes after your child’s birth. This test will evaluate your newborn’s physical condition after the delivery. After the one minute test and the five minute test your child may need a couple more of the APGAR tests if your medical doctor sees fit.
The APGAR score was invented in 1952 by Virginia Apgar. APGAR is an abbreviation for the conditions, and items that they check. The A in Apgar stands for activity. Is your child moving much, or showing signs of movement? The P stands for pulse. Is your child’s pulse normal, is it slower, and is it faster? The G in Apgar stands for grimace, and the second A stands for appearance. Does your child have the appearance of a normal newborn, or is it discolored? The R in Apgar stands for respiration. Is your child breathing right?
The nurses will rate your child on a scale of zero to two. They will write down these scores, and then take the scores again in four minutes to see if they have any improvements on some of the things that might not have been too high. If they don’t see a major improvement if there was a deficiency then they will get the doctor, and see if your child need further medical attention, or even emergency attention.
This will tell you in the beginning if your child is healthy or not, but you will have further tests run on your child later on in the future when you take your child to the doctors to get him or her first check up. The doctor will run further tests on your child, and see if your baby has passed its first meconium. You can never be too careful when it comes to your child’s safety and health because it will mean more to you than anything if something were to happen.
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