Music Therapy with Lullabies Good for Premature Babies

Live music can help premature babies grow healthy and overcome their initial difficulties with sleeping, breathing and feeding, a new study says.

Babies born before 37 weeks of gestational age are considered to be premature babies. Preterm birth is the leading cause of newborn deaths and the second leading cause of death among children aged below 5 in the world. In the country, more than half a million babies are born prematurely.

A preterm birth can bring in many health problems for the child, including intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, breathing or respiratory problems, feeding or digestive problems and vision or hearing loss.

The findings of the current study, published online in Pediatrics April 15, found that different types of live music, including lullabies, sounds similar to the mother's heartbeat or fluid inside the womb, improve the physiological and developmental function of premature babies.

To analyze the importance of some live components of music like rhythm, breath and lullabies on premature babies, Joanne Loewy, DA, and colleagues from Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City looked at 272 preterm babies at 11 neonatal intensive care units (NICU).

All the babies underwent the live music interventions thrice a week for 14 days. Throughout the study, researchers monitored and recorded the developmental and physiological function of the babies. They noticed heart rates going down after each intervention. Apart from that, the babies showed remarkable improvement in the areas related to feed, sleep, and self-regulation. Parents also benefited out of the intervention, as music helped them to manage their stress and helped in bonding with their babies.

"The informed, intentional therapeutic use of live sound and parent-preferred lullabies applied by a certified music therapist can influence cardiac and respiratory function," the authors wrote. "Entrained with a premature infant's observed vital signs, sound and lullaby may improve feeding behaviors and sucking patterns and may increase prolonged periods of quiet-alert states. Parent-preferred lullabies, sung live, can enhance bonding, thus decreasing the stress parents associate with premature infant care."

Efforts to help premature babies have been going on for a long time. In May 2012, a team of researchers from Florida University developed a pacifier that teaches the newborn to take feed properly through its musical lullaby reinforcement.

A baby gets the initial skills of non-nutritive sucking from the uterus starting from the 28th week of pregnancy. The ability of non-nutritive skill will be absent in preterm babies as they are born early. The device, Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL), plays a lullaby every time the baby sucks on it correctly, thus encouraging them to continue and master the art of sucking.