Sep 24, 2023 12:00:00

Research results show that listening to ``Mozart's Lullaby'' relieves babies' pain

Some people advocate the theory that ``babies' brains do not feel pain in the same way as adults,'' but recent

research suggests that babies feel pain in the same way as adults. It is important to reduce your baby's pain as much as possible. A study in which newborns were asked to listen to a piece of music known as `` Mozart's Lullaby '' while having their blood drawn showed that newborns who listened to music were less likely to feel pain.

Music for pain relief of minor procedures in term neonates | Pediatric Research
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-023-02746-4

Mozart lullaby may ameliorate pain in newborns during heel prick blood test
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-mozart-lullaby-ameliorate-pain-newborns.html

Music may reduce babies' pain during jabs or heel-prick tests, study suggests | Medical research | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/29/music-may-reduce-babies-pain-during-jabs-or-heel-prick-tests-study-suggests

We all treat our babies with respect, but sometimes medical procedures can cause pain, such as vaccinations or needle sticks for various tests. Therefore, a research team led by Saminathan Anbalagan, a neonatal and perinatal medicine fellow at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in the United States, conducted an experiment to determine whether listening to music could reduce pain in newborns. .

'Studies show that early pain experiences can alter how we respond to pain later in life, leading to adverse long-term outcomes,' Anbalagan said. Establishing simple and reliable methods to reduce pain in newborns is critical.'

Neonatal mass screening tests are performed on newborns shortly after birth to check for serious diseases such as cystic fibrosis and inherited metabolic disorders. In this test, a needle is inserted into the newborn's heel and a small amount of blood is soaked onto filter paper to collect blood.

The research team conducted a study on 100 newborns who underwent newborn mass screening tests in New York City from April 2019 to February 2020, in an experimental group in which blood was drawn while listening to music, and in a group in which blood was drawn without listening to music. were randomly assigned to the control group. The babies were born at an average of 39 weeks of gestation, 53% were boys and 61% were Hispanic.

Both infants in the experimental and control groups drank a small amount of sugar water 2 minutes before the procedure, as is standard practice. The 54 newborns assigned to the experimental group listened to a Mozart lullaby for approximately five minutes from pre- to post-treatment, while newborns in the control group did not listen to any music.

The research team used a standard scoring system that assesses newborns' pain based on facial expressions, cries, breathing patterns, limb movements, and level of arousal. We measured how they felt on an 8-point scale from 0 to 7. All newborns had a pain score of 0 before the procedure.

As a result of the experiment, newborns who listened to the lullaby had an average pain score of ``4'' during the procedure, and the average pain score returned to ``0'' one minute after the procedure. On the other hand, newborns who did not listen to lullabies had an average pain score of 7 during the procedure, maintained an average pain score of 5.5 1 minute after the procedure, and had an average pain score of 5.5 2 minutes after the procedure. It was '2'. In other words, newborns who listened to lullabies experienced significantly less pain during and after the procedure.

'Music intervention is an easy, reproducible, and inexpensive tool for relieving pain in healthy newborns from minor procedures,' Anbalagan said. This strongly suggests the need to consider the effectiveness of similar interventions, such as the use of