Newborns and the Sound of Music

A great post by Marshall Chasin at HHTM:



Image Source: Wikipedia

"In an online version of the journal Pediatrics (http://pediatrics.aappublications.org) for April 15, 2013, more evidence was found that the sound of music could be beneficial for newborns. It was found that premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) who had respiratory difficulties did slightly better when presented with recorded sounds of what their mother’s voice would have sounded like in the womb. Similar findings were found whenever the mother or father sang to them. The heart rate of these infants slowed by 2-3 beats a minute while listening to these sounds.

Specifically, from data acquired at 11 NICUs that had music therapists employed, for 272 premature infants, over a two-week period, a number of vital signs were recorded. It turns out that the reduction in heart rate was the same whether the low-frequency sound was provided by a music therapist’s device or by the voice of the parents.

This is more evidence that music (singing) can be beneficial for even our youngest members of society. For years, parents have been told to talk to their unborn and newborn children in hopes of developing early bonds.

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Read the full post on HHTM: Infants and The Vowel U