Allison Taylor

The research topic I would like to research is the APGAR assessment done on newborns
1 and 5 minutes after they are born. I would like to research how effective this assessment is and
how it saves the lives of babies. This assessment is used on every baby born in the United States.
This assessment was invented to predict survival rate. Now it is used to determine what care the
infant will need. I would like to research how the Apgar assessment has saved lives or how it
didnt. My research question will be how effective is the Apgar assessment in saving lives.
This assessment assesses the heart rate, respiration, color, muscle tone and reflex
irritability. The Apgar assessment is scored on a scale of one to ten, ten being the highest. The
higher an infant scores on this assessment the better the chance of survival. A low score doesnt
mean the infant wont survive, it just means that the medical team has to do more interventions
for the infant, to help improve the five categories that the Apgar assesses. Although infants who
score a three or below have a 30% higher mortality rate than and infant who scores a 7 or higher.