Maternal singing has been revealed to be a powerful means of improving the neuronal development and well-being of premature babies. Numerous studies have shown that singing can strengthen mother-child bonding, have a positive impact on autonomic nervous system maturation and enhance the general well-being of newborn babies.
It is scientifically proven that the first thousand days are the most important for children’s neuronal development. Taking action during this time can leave a positive legacy for them in the future. In particular, the arts have proved to be an effective way of strengthening the mother-child bond, starting during pregnancy.
At a time when health inequalities are increasingly marked and having a growing impact on people’s lives, it is crucial to strive to reduce them from birth by taking action on the social determinants of health – i.e. the conditions in which people are born, live, work and age – in order to bring out their potential and begin restricting disadvantages from the time they are born.
The largest amount of evidence regards the benefits of the maternal voice for fetal well-being. From the 19th week of pregnancy, a fetus is capable of responding to sounds, starting with its mother’s heartbeat. It has been discovered that mother-baby interaction in the form of singing increases perceptions of emotional closeness and strengthens the bond with children from pregnancy onwards.
Singing is not just beneficial for all mother-child bonds from the time of conception. It can also help during the battle against specific health challenges faced by fragile newborns, first and foremost among which is preterm birth. Prematurity is not only increasingly common but also the leading cause of death in children’s early years. According to UN estimates, 1 in 10 babies are born early, before 37 weeks of pregnancy. That adds up to an annual figure of 13.4 million premature babies worldwide. Nearly a million of them die and the others are at risk of suffering major illnesses, disability and developmental delays, as well as chronic diseases in adulthood, such as diabetes and heart conditions.
In the event of premature birth, it has been established that the most powerful treatment a child can receive is skin-to-skin contact with a parent. As well as strengthening parent-child attachment, it boosts the child’s physiological stability and development, producing positive long-term effects.
More and more research is being done into the efficacy of vocal contact with parents for babies who are born prematurely and exposed to an atypical auditory environment, while also experiencing long periods of early separation from their parents.
In order to establish how efficacious measures involving singing actually are, a trial compared the effects of parents speaking with those of parents singing in a sample of 80 babies born between the 25th and 32nd weeks of gestation. Few effects were seen in the heart rate variability of the babies whose parents simply spoke, but benefits were seen in the heart rates of the babies in the group whose parents sang.
Although it only included 30 premature babies born between the 25th and 32nd weeks of gestation, in another sample maternal singing was shown to have a positive impact on autonomic nervous system maturation. Often compromised in premature babies, the autonomic nervous system plays a key part in both short-term and long-term neurobehavioural development. The heart rate variability parameters were measured weekly, before and after each singing session. With both an intervention group and a control group being examined, a total of 80 recordings were made. The recordings showed that there was a significant increase in the percentage value of heart rate variability power in the high frequency range in the intervention group, when compared to the control group.
The vagal activity of preterm infants significantly increased in the intervention group, potentially enhancing their autonomic nervous system maturation. Once again, the efficacy was greater when the intervention involved singing rather than just speaking, underlining the huge potential of the arts in health and care settings.
Despite the growing number of studies demonstrating the efficacy of this type of care, the amount of clinical interventions is still limited and restricted to a few centres of excellence, including Sant’Anna hospital in Turin, and Geneva, Modena, Bologna, Florence and Mangiagalli university hospitals. Behind these initiatives, there are often healthcare workers who are already receptive to the idea and willing to make the arts part of care pathways. This is due not only to organisational and management difficulties (frequently associated with a lack of economic resources), but also to a culture that is still dominant in the profession and in medical training involving intervention models and biomedical training that are often of a very circumscribed nature.
In order for the soundness of these projects to be recognised, they need validation based on scientific research that proves their efficacy, just like when a new drug is tested. That requires substantial investments in human resources dedicated to research and greater openness and receptiveness to accepting and supporting initiatives of this kind.
The effort required is significant, but so are the results: active involvement of parents in neonatal care can give rise to benefits not only for children and families, but also for health facilities, which often have to handle excessive demand with insufficient resources.
A “caring community” that can give and receive benefits at the same time will fuel a virtuous circle when it comes to care and support for parents, playing an indispensable part in the battle against the demographic winter we’re experiencing.