Maternal singing calms preemies and their mothers: study
For preemies, the combination of hearing mother’s voice softly singing while being held against her skin can have a number of health benefits – and it helps moms, too, a new study suggests.
When mothers in a neonatal intensive care unit sang while holding their preterm infants in a skin-to-skin “kangaroo care” position, the babies’ heart rate improved compared to when they were held without singing. Mothers’ anxiety levels dropped as well. “We noticed that many mothers want to speak or sing during kangaroo care as a natural feeling of love and care for their child,” said lead author Shmuel Arnon, a physician at the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, Israel.
Read the full article from the reuters website here.
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