A new study suggests that singing lullabies and playing womb-like music to a premature baby in intensive care can help slow heart rate and improve sleep and eating patterns of the baby, The New York Times reports.
Premature babies kept in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) have been found to respond positively to singing lullabies and playing womb-like music. A study has found that singing lullabies and playing womb-like music to a sick premature baby can help slow heart rate and improve sleep and eating patterns of the baby.
"We are learning from the literature and studies like this that premature infants do not necessarily grow best tucked away in an incubator," Joanne Loewy, head of the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York told Reuters Health. "Neurologic function can be enhanced with music; vital signs can be enhanced through interactive sounds and music therapy."
The study was conducted on 272 premature babies that were being treated in 11 different NICUs, all of which had music therapists. For two weeks, at different time intervals, parents were asked to sing lullabies to these babies and therapists played womb-like music to these babies for at least 10 minutes.
Researchers then compared the babies' eating and sleeping habits when music was being played and sung to when nothing was done. It was found that babies' heart rates dropped by one or two beats per minute, on average, while they listened to the lullaby and heartbeat sounds and just after they'd heard other womb-like sounds.
"The singing is extremely important because it represents familiarity - the baby hears the mother and father's voice as early as 16 weeks," Loewy said, "plus you have melody and rhythm in song."
Since all babies were exposed to music in the study, Loewy clarifies that no assumptions can be made on how these babies would react to no music being played at all. However, she and her colleagues especially encouraged parents to sing songs that are important to their family and culture.
