What is an APGAR score?

by Samantha Bevington
Written By Samantha Cryer

What is an APGAR Score?

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Once your baby is born, the midwives in charge of your care will assess your baby using a scoring system called APGAR. This routine scoring occurs after 60 seconds and again at 5 minutes post birth.

A baby can score between zero and two for each of five criteria (Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity and Respiration) This is added to give a score out of 10.
A score of seven or above is considered normal, and a score below seven is regarded as low.

From the NHS Maternity Statistics 2018-2019, only 1% of the 485,901 term babies (with an APGAR score recorded) had a score below seven.

Samantha Cryer
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