February 2024 Parenta magazine_compressed

Frances Turnbull
Musical
medicine
How music helps pre-term
neonatal infants
listening to and creating music reduces
blood pressure, improves metabolism
and has even been suggested that this
is because music improves the immune
system.
A review of 13 studies (Yue et al., 2021)
considered over 1,000 infants in neonatal
intensive care. In an environment of
machines, tubes and medical equipment,
studies showed that music and singing
reduced the infant’s heart rate, respiratory
rate, oral feeding volume, stress level and
maternal anxiety. These are all predictors
of survival, so important areas that tell
doctors what interventions are necessary.
A further review of 25 studies (Haslbeck
et al., 2023) with over 1,500 infants did
not show increased oxygen saturation
or infant development but did appear to
reduce heart rates significantly. Heart rate
is linked to the stress hormones adrenaline
and cortisol (fight/flight responses), which
can lead to medical emergencies including
heart attack and stroke. This is why we are
encouraged to reduce our heart rate at all
ages.
more memorable, and the rhythm of
the words gives the feeling of call-andresponse
completion.
My Bonnie
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
Bring back, oh bring back, oh
Bring back my Bonnie, to me, to me
Bring back, oh bring back, oh
Bring back my Bonnie to me
Oh, blow ye waves over the ocean
Oh, blow ye waves over the sea
Oh, blow ye waves over the ocean
And bring back my Bonnie to me
This well-known Scottish lullaby is written
in the rocking rhythm of 6/8 timing, like
other children’s songs and many sea
shanties. With the feeling of rocking on the
waves of the ocean, we think that rocking
is familiar to newborns because of their
experience, floating in amniotic fluid.
Cradle song
Lullaby and goodnight
With roses bestride
With lilies bedecked
‘Neath baby’s sweet bed
May thou sleep, may thou rest
May thy slumber be blessed
May thou sleep, may thou rest
May thy slumber be blessed
This classic lullaby is actually written in
3/4 waltz timing, a wonderful rhythm for a
slow and quiet dance.
Knowing that these types of songs are
used in intensive care to quiet and calm
babies in distress is useful. We can use
this knowledge with our own little ones,
bringing calm to their situation, whatever
it may be.
With this in mind, here are some lullabies
to get started with younger children
particularly:
Hush little baby
Hush, little baby, don’t say a word.
Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird won’t sing,
Mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring
Toora loora loora
Over in Killarney, many years ago
Me mother sang a song to me
In tones so sweet and low
Just a simple little ditty, in her good old
Irish way
And I’d give the world if she could sing
That song to me today
If that diamond ring turns brass
Mama’s gonna buy you a looking glass
If that looking glass gets broke
Mama’s gonna buy you a billy goat
Toora, loora, loora, Toora, loora, lai
Toora, loora, loora, hush now, don’t you cry
Toora, loora, loora, Toora, loora, lai
That’s an Irish lullaby
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We started this year by looking at how
music can help to support children with
language delays. Looking a little closer,
there are several health conditions that
music can support, specifically through
singing.
This is particularly timely because of
the number of recent articles showing
how lockdown has impacted all of us,
particularly our children. As a result,
many different holistic and psychological
approaches are being recommended to
improve children’s outcomes.
Ironically, music has been shown to
support the development of several areas,
including physical and socio-emotional.
Sadly, it has also been one of the first
subjects to go in favour of more academic
subjects, including numeracy and literacy.
In response to this, we are going to
continue our enquiry into the ways that
we can use music and singing to support
health conditions in children. This month
we are going to look at how music can
support children right from the start: preterm
infants in neonatal care.
Music has an amazing effect on people.
It has been found to increase happiness
hormones, promote relaxation, help
people to learn and work more efficiently,
and even help people to get along better
together. Research during COVID-19
started looking more closely into why and
how this may occur.
Music therapists have been publishing
findings on the different effects that music
has had on small groups of people with
specific conditions for years, and the
common benefits have been on stress:
If that billy goat won’t pull
Mama’s gonna buy a you a cart and bull
If that cart and bull turn over
Mama’s gonna buy you a dog named
Rover
If that dog named Rover won’t bark
Mama’s gonna buy you a horse and cart
And if that horse and cart fall down
You’ll still be the sweetest little baby in
town
This lovely traditional song is full of
rhyming couplets, pleasing to the ear
because of the gentle rhythm. The
continuity of the storyline makes the lyrics
Oft in dreams I wander to that cot again
I feel her arms a-huggin me as when she
held me then
And I hear her voice a hummin’
To me as in days of yore
When she used to rock me fast asleep
Outside the cabin door
This traditional Irish lullaby is also written
in the 6/8 rocking rhythm, full of rhythm
and rhyme. The brain naturally looks for
pleasing sound patterns, and this will
be far more pleasing to the ear than
the medical beeps and noises of the
monitoring machines.
from Frances:
32 February 2024 | parenta.com
parenta.com | February 2024 33