Virginia Apgar Listens to Every New Baby

The hospital was quiet in the early morning. The sun had not yet come up. But Dr. Virginia Apgar was already awake. She was already thinking. Virginia loved babies. She loved the way they yawned and blinked. She loved their tiny fingers and their little sounds. But Virginia had a worry deep in her heart. Some babies were born and nobody checked on them quickly enough. Some babies needed help right away, and nobody knew. Virginia was a doctor. She worked at a big hospital in New York City. Every day she walked the long bright hallways. Every day she listened and watched and thought. She asked questions nobody had asked before. What if we could check every new baby? What if we could know, in just one minute, whether a baby was doing well? One morning, a nurse asked her, "Dr. Apgar, how would we even do that?" Virginia smiled. She picked up a pencil. She wrote five things on a small piece of paper. Heart rate. Breathing. Color. Muscles. Reflexes. Five things. Each one would get a score of zero, one, or two. Add them all up. That number would tell you everything you needed to know. "We will call it the Apgar Score," the nurse said. Virginia laughed softly. "We will call it a way to help babies," she said. She tested her idea. She tested it again. She tested it many, many times. Other doctors watched. Some of them were not sure at first. Change is hard, even for smart people. But Virginia was patient. She showed them her numbers. She showed them her careful notes. She showed them the babies who had gotten better because someone had checked on them in time. One by one, the other doctors began to nod. One by one, hospitals across America began to use her score. Virginia traveled far and wide. She spoke in big cities and small towns. She stood at tall podiums and looked out at rooms full of doctors and nurses. "Every baby matters," she told them. "Every single one." Her voice was steady and clear. She never stopped believing in her idea. Baby Emma was born on a cold December morning. The nurses counted to sixty. They checked her heart rate. They watched her breathe. They looked at her color, her muscles, her little face. They added up her score. It was low. Too low. The nurses moved quickly. They gave Emma the help she needed right away. They kept her warm. They helped her breathe more deeply. They watched her closely all through the morning. By noon, little Emma was pink and round and sleeping peacefully. Her mother held her close and whispered, "Thank you." She did not know Virginia Apgar's name yet. But someday she would. Virginia never stopped working. She studied and taught and traveled for years and years. She believed that learning was a gift you could give to the whole world. She believed that one good idea, carefully tended, could grow into something magnificent. And it did. Today, every baby born in America, and in countries all around the world, is given the Apgar Score in the very first minute of life. Millions and millions of babies. All of them checked. All of them seen. All of them given the best chance to grow up strong and well. Virginia Apgar asked a brave question. She worked hard to find the answer. She shared what she learned with everyone. That is what scientists do. That is what brave women do. That is what Americans do at their very best. So tonight, little one, as you close your eyes and breathe slowly in the dark, remember this. Someone was watching over you even before you knew the world. Someone cared enough to count. Someone made sure you were seen. And that someone had a pencil and a dream and a heart full of love. Sweet dreams, brave one. Sleep well.