My sons agpar score at one min was 6 - should i be worried?

Question

at the 1 min test the score was 6 but at the 5 min test it had risen to 9. Should i be worried about the low score? not sure as both my other daughters had scores of 9 - 9

Answer 1

My daughters both had really high apgar scores 8-9 and 9-9 when they were born but when my first son was born his 1 minute apgar was 2 and the 5 minute was 3.  Now he is 8 and perfectly healthy and a very big boy for 8.  Our newest addition had a 4 at 1 min and a 6 at 5 but he his healthy and happy baby.

many babies are under a lot of stress during delivery and there for have lower scores, some recover from the stress quickly and others don't but if there was anything to worry about the doctor would have told you.

Answer 2

My little girls apgar score at one min was 1!!! By 5 mins it was 9! She has just turned five years old and she is a lovely happy, normal little girl.  Don't worry your son will be fine!

Answer 3

There's a reason they take it more than once.  As long as the score went up at the 5-minute mark to "good" (7 or better), there's usually no concern.  I'm sure the doctor/nurse/midwife checked him out after the marginal score of 6 at 1 minute, but apparently wasn't concerned, since you don't say any special measures were taken.

As the kidshealth link below states:

It's important for new parents to keep their baby's Apgar score in perspective. The test was designed to help health care providers assess a newborn's overall physical condition so that they could quickly determine whether the baby needed immediate medical care. It was not designed to predict a baby's long-term health, behavior, intellectual status, or outcome. Few babies score a perfect 10, and perfectly healthy babies sometimes have a lower-than-usual score, especially in the first few minutes after birth.