Singing lullabies soothes newborns, but if these pieces of music were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, they can also help ease the pain a baby feels when undergoing a heel stick blood test, as detailed in a study published Tuesday in the journal Pediatric Research.
This is the result of a study carried out with one hundred infants, in which it is indicated that newborns who listened to only one of the lullabies composed by Mozart before, during and after the puncture registered less pain and calmed down sooner.
A small test to detect diseases
A team led by the Lincoln Medical Center in New York developed their research while the babies underwent the so-called heel test, a blood test in the foot that is used to detect some diseases such as congenital hypothyroidism or hypothyroidism. phenylcentonuria.
The infants had a mean of two days of life and were born at 39 weeks of gestation. As part of standard care, all were given 0.5 milliliters of sugar solution two minutes before performing the heel lance. Parents could not physically hold the baby to calm him down during the trial.
More than half listened to Mozart
Fifty-four of the 100 infants listened to a Mozart instrumental lullaby for 20 minutes before and during the heel stick and for five minutes afterward, while the remainder listened to no music. Before receiving the small prick, the authors observed similar pain levels in both groups of babies, which were on average zero.
However, the mean pain score of the babies who listened to the lullaby was significantly lower during and immediately after the procedure, compared to those who did not listen to music.
Differences in pain between those who listened to the melody
Specifically, the pain scores of the babies who heard the musical melody were 4 during the puncture; 0 one minute later and 0 two minutes later. In contrast, in the group of the remaining 46 who did not listen to music, the pain scores were 7; 5.5 and 2 at the same time points, according to the study.
Three minutes after the procedure, the team found no significant difference in the mean pain scores of the infants in either group.
“Musical intervention is an easy, reproducible, and inexpensive tool to relieve pain from minor procedures in healthy, full-term neonates,” the researchers propose.
How do you know if a child is in pain?
Pain levels were determined based on the children’s facial expressions, degree of crying, breathing patterns, limb movements, and alertness levels.
The authors, who included a researcher wearing noise-cancelling headphones among their ranks, took into account the possible influence of other sensory stimuli on pain levels, performing the procedure in a quiet, dimly lit room at room temperature, and not providing newborns with pacifiers or physical comfort.
The authors suggest that future studies could focus on recordings of parents’ voices, which may also reduce pain in newborns during minor procedures, as well as explore the influence of caregivers’ physical comfort, in addition to music, in pain levels.
Keep reading:
· What is the “Mozart effect” and how it helps people with epilepsy
Beethoven’s hair auctioned for $45,000