Listening to music may help premature babies cope up with pain, feed better and calm down easily.
Listening to music may help premature babies cope up with pain, feed better and calm down easily.
Premature infants have to undergo a multitude of painful procedures, such as blood sampling with heel pricks, and pain treatment is often underused in these cases.
To determine if music, which has been promoted as helping preemies in many ways, could indeed reduce pain during these procedures and have other benefits, researchers from Canada conducted a systematic review of studies published regarding efficacy of music for medical indications in term and preterm babies. They identified nine studies: three evaluating music for circumcision pain; three for pain during heel prick; and three for its effects on crying, feeding rates, and physiological stability.
A baby's blood oxygen levels, blood pressure and heart rate change in response to stress and pain were the main physiological parameters recorded. Babies listening to music showed smaller changes in these measures and were calmer during painful procedures than babies who had these procedures without music.
Though high-quality studies on the subject are lacking, one high-quality study in 23 infants found that music did help reduce heart rate, boost oxygen saturation, and ease pain. The heel prick studies were all of lower quality, but all found benefits of music for behavior and pain. Of the remaining studies, one found music helped improve some measures of behavior. The second, in 32 poorly feeding preemies, found feeding improved in babies given pacifiers that activated a lullaby when sucked, compared to babies who didn't get the musical pacifiers. The third study, in 22 preemies with lung disease, found no benefit of music on any physiological measures.
The above observations indicate that pacifier-activated music could indeed help newborns feed better. However, the study in the review didn't report on important factors such as how soon babies were able to begin feeding on their own, or whether they were able to go home from the hospital sooner. Therefore, more, higher-quality research is needed on the potential benefits of music for newborns.
Premature infants have to undergo a multitude of painful procedures, such as blood sampling with heel pricks, and pain treatment is often underused in these cases.
To determine if music, which has been promoted as helping preemies in many ways, could indeed reduce pain during these procedures and have other benefits, researchers from Canada conducted a systematic review of studies published regarding efficacy of music for medical indications in term and preterm babies. They identified nine studies: three evaluating music for circumcision pain; three for pain during heel prick; and three for its effects on crying, feeding rates, and physiological stability.
A baby's blood oxygen levels, blood pressure and heart rate change in response to stress and pain were the main physiological parameters recorded. Babies listening to music showed smaller changes in these measures and were calmer during painful procedures than babies who had these procedures without music.
Though high-quality studies on the subject are lacking, one high-quality study in 23 infants found that music did help reduce heart rate, boost oxygen saturation, and ease pain. The heel prick studies were all of lower quality, but all found benefits of music for behavior and pain. Of the remaining studies, one found music helped improve some measures of behavior. The second, in 32 poorly feeding preemies, found feeding improved in babies given pacifiers that activated a lullaby when sucked, compared to babies who didn't get the musical pacifiers. The third study, in 22 preemies with lung disease, found no benefit of music on any physiological measures.
The above observations indicate that pacifier-activated music could indeed help newborns feed better. However, the study in the review didn't report on important factors such as how soon babies were able to begin feeding on their own, or whether they were able to go home from the hospital sooner. Therefore, more, higher-quality research is needed on the potential benefits of music for newborns.
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