Music therapy: auxiliary method of habilitation in infants with perinatal pathology during the first months of life

Abstract

A review of the literature presents the history of the use of music therapy in the treatment of a variety of diseases, both in adult clinical practice and in neonatology and pediatrics; there are described various musical and therapeutic programs considered as a part of complex, specially developed, methods of non-drug rehabilitation, with the presentation of indications and contraindications for this type of therapy in newborns and infants; possible neurophysiological justifications for the use of melodic and rhythmic support of infants with perinatal pathology are presented, as well as the prospects of using music therapy in the practice of nursing newborns, including premature babies, suffering from combined perinatal pathology, in the structure of restorative treatment (habilitation) of children, as an auxiliary method that mildly potentiates the effects of the main methods: physical and medicinal. Currently, in the leading perinatal centers of the country, the opportunity is being created for babies to listen to music as part of multi-sensory developmental care. Specially processed short fragments of instrumental and vocal works by V. Mozart are used in recording, fragments of works of other classical composers, singing lullabies and folk songs performed by his mother. The reliable potentiating effect of musical therapy on adaptation responses of the immature nervous system is established, the connection of enrichment of the external environment with long-term outcomes of the perinatal lesion is discussed. The combination of tactile kangaroo stimulation with the vocal influence of the mother has been proved to have a greater effect than the use of musical fragments in recording, and a strictly individual approach is needed to use music therapy in premature immature infants to avoid undesirable consequences.