HOUSTON – You may have heard that playing Mozart while pregnant can help your baby develop in the womb. But music may actually play a bigger role in development after the baby is born – especially for premature births.
Baby Hugh was born at 27 weeks, weighing in at only 1 pound, 7.6 oz. With the help of music therapy, he celebrated his 100th-day of life at an impressive 7 pound, 8.6 oz.
“Looking back at pictures my husband and I are in awe because his fingers used to barely cover our fingernails,” said Shayla Lewis, Hugh’s mother. “He’s had a lot of his major milestones here.”
Music therapy is much more sophisticated than playing classical music or singing lullabies while baby sleeps. Hannah Mata, a board-certified music therapist, helped Hugh through the difficult adjustment to life outside the womb before he was ready.
Hannah joined KPRC 2 News Today at 10 to talk about the benefits of music therapy.
(You can watch her interview above.)
“(Music therapy) is therapeutic not only to Hugh, but also to parents,” Lewis said. “Whenever we have Hannah here, she just has a calming presence. And we really appreciate that.”
Premature babies are hypersensitive to sound, touch and movement, usually have difficulty breathing and maintaining steady vitals, and frequently have issues feeding. These music therapy techniques can help with all those issues so that babies have less pain with touch, gain more weight, and go home sooner.
- Multimodal neurologic enhancement combines music and progressive touch to associate sound, touch, and movement with comfort and relaxation
- Heartbeat rhythm matching decreases stress and helps stabilize vital signs during procedures, treatments and tests
- Matching bottle-feeding rhythm with music helped Hugh pace while eating and stay awake longer during feeds
- Ocean discs lulled Hugh to sleep when mom had to leave, helping him stay calm and slow his breathing, allowing him to get more oxygen and eventually wean off of respiratory support altogether
“I hope other parents have the opportunity to pursue it, whether they have a typical birth and a typical developing baby,” Lewis said. “I think it’s very beneficial to all children, but especially to those who have not so great of a start.”
To learn more you can visit the American Music Therapy Association’s website or the Certification Board for Music Therapists’ website.