Music may soothe newborn infants' pain
Playing music around newborn babies may ease the pain of routine medical procedures.
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Playing music around newborn babies may ease the pain of routine medical procedures.
Neonatal units are increasingly using music to calm infants during common painful procedures, despite a lack of solid evidence that it is helpful.
To investigate further whether lullabies may soothe preemies' pain, researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada reviewed nine randomised controlled trials published between 1989 and 2006 that looked at the value of newborn music therapy. Lullabies were the most common music selection in the studies. The meta-analysis included both full-term and preterm infants.
It was found that six out of nine studies looked at playing music to babies during painful procedures such as circumcision and heel pricks to obtain blood samples. One considered the effect of playing music on feeding rates as infants moved from feeding by nasal or gastric tubes to bottle feeding. Two studies looked at the effect of music on physiology and behaviour. The one that looked at using music during circumcision showed benefits for the infants' heart rate, oxygen saturation and pain, while the other, a heel prick study, found benefits for behaviour and pain.
Other benefits of playing music also included calmer infants and parents, more rapid weight gain among preterm infants, and shorter hospital stays.
The above findings give preliminary evidence to suggest that music may have beneficial effects in terms of pain reduction during painful medical procedures. More rigorous trials are needed to confirm these findings.
Neonatal units are increasingly using music to calm infants during common painful procedures, despite a lack of solid evidence that it is helpful.
To investigate further whether lullabies may soothe preemies' pain, researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada reviewed nine randomised controlled trials published between 1989 and 2006 that looked at the value of newborn music therapy. Lullabies were the most common music selection in the studies. The meta-analysis included both full-term and preterm infants.
It was found that six out of nine studies looked at playing music to babies during painful procedures such as circumcision and heel pricks to obtain blood samples. One considered the effect of playing music on feeding rates as infants moved from feeding by nasal or gastric tubes to bottle feeding. Two studies looked at the effect of music on physiology and behaviour. The one that looked at using music during circumcision showed benefits for the infants' heart rate, oxygen saturation and pain, while the other, a heel prick study, found benefits for behaviour and pain.
Other benefits of playing music also included calmer infants and parents, more rapid weight gain among preterm infants, and shorter hospital stays.
The above findings give preliminary evidence to suggest that music may have beneficial effects in terms of pain reduction during painful medical procedures. More rigorous trials are needed to confirm these findings.
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