Music therapy for premature babies in intensive care
Lullaby music can help premature babies in intensive care units develop, according to researchers at the Center for Music Research, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA.
The researchers assessed the benefits of lullaby singing and multimodal stimulation on premature infants in neonatal intensive care. 40 infants in a Level III Newborn Intermediate Care Unit were divided into two groups of 20, pair matched on the basis of gender, birthweight, gestational age at birth and severity of medical complications. The babies were all (a) corrected gestational age > 32 weeks; (b) age since birth > 10 days; and (c) weight > 1700 g, and all of the babies had been referred for developmental stimulation by the medical staff.
Experimental infants received reciprocal, multimodal (ATVV) stimulation paired with line singing of Brahms' Lullaby. Stimulation was provided for 15-30 minutes, one or two times per week from referral to discharge. Dependent variables were (a) days to discharge, (b) weight gain/day, and (c) experimental infants' tolerance for stimulation.
The results showed that music and multimodal stimulation significantly benefited females' days to discharge and increased weight gain/day for both males and females. Both male and female infants' tolerance for stimulation showed marked and steady increase across the stimulation intervals with females' tolerance increasing more rapidly than males.
The study indicates that playing a music lullaby can have a noticeable theraputic effect on premature babies in an intensive care unit.
The effect of music and multimodal stimulation on responses of premature infants in neonatal intensive care . Pediatr Nurs 1998 Nov-Dec;24(6):532-8. Standley JM
.