Doctors use the Apgar test to assess the alertness of a newborn baby.
They used to think that low Apgar tests often indicated that the baby suffers from lack of oxygen at birth. If they were not resuscitated immediately, the babies brain would be damaged, causing cerebral palsy. So the Apgar test that most courts use to determine low oxygen levels and a doctor's culpability for causing cerebral palsy, may really be a test associated with a uterine infection that occurred long before the mother gave birth. And lack of resuscitation may have little, if any association, with cerebral palsy. Many gynecologists have stopped practicing obstetrics because of fear of being blamed for complications that are beyond their control.