The Effects of Mothers’ Voice on the Long Term Development of Premature Infants: A Prospective Randomized Study

Abstract

Language acquisition appears to begin during fetal life. This is substantiated by the fact that the fetus recognizes and remembers the voice and melody of the mother's language. We hypothesized that Auditory Stimulation of preterm infants with their mothers' voice may also improve their language and overall development. 24 preterm infants were exposed on a daily basis 5 times for 30 minutes to the recorded voice of their mothers for 6 to 10 weeks beginning 1 to 3 weeks after birth. A control group of 24 infants (with comparable intensive care standards) had similar gestational age (24-30 weeks) and birth weight (650-1440g) as the treatment group. Developmental tests were done at the post-term age of 5 and 20 months (Griffiths Development Quotient), at 56 months (Columbia Mental Maturity Scales, active vocabulary; and a logopedic test of understanding) and 6 years (understanding and construct of sentences). Early developmental parameters were logged by the mothers upon discharge, through their use of a daily diary. This included assessment inquiries related to breastfeeding and mood. At 5 months of age, the Griffiths Development Quotient was significantly (p=0.007) higher in the stimulated infants (95± 15) when compared with the controls (80±20). Stimulated infants began earlier than the controls to use two-word sentences (17 vs. 20 months), in the same range than time-born infants; at 6 years the subtest "speech understanding” was significantly better in the stimulated group than in the controls (p<0.05). The mothers of the stimulated infants reported less burden and showed more stability. They breastfed their babies at 5 months after full term significantly more often as compared to controls (50% vs. 12.5%). Auditory Stimulation of preterm infants using recordings of mothers' voice appears to improve emotional stability of the mothers and development of their preterm infants. In particular, development of speech and understanding appears to improve through 6 years of postnatal age.

Effects of an Early Postnatal Music Intervention on Cognitive and Emotional Development in Preterm Children at 12 and 24 Months: Preliminary Findings

“…This result might not only reflect that preterm infants recognized the known music but also that they perceived it as more arousing and pleasant ( Lordier et al, 2018 ). Other studies have reported positive effects on behavioral development after exposure to a breathing bear ( Thoman et al, 1991 ; Ingersoll and Thoman, 1994 ), to the sound of a heartbeat ( Barnard and Bee, 1983 ), or to voices ( Nöcker-Ribaupierre et al, 2015 ; Filippa et al, 2017 ; Best et al, 2018 ; Saliba et al, 2018 ) during the NICU stay. However, the long-term effects of music listening in the NICUs on preterm infant’s cognitive and emotional development have never been explored so far.…”

Effects of Mother's Voice Recording Toward Premature Infant Heart Rate Changes at the Rsud Dr. Moewardi

“…Exposure to recorded mother's voice is given to babies between 10:00 WIB (western Indonesia time) to 19:00 WIB (western Indonesia time), in 2 different shifts. The recording is played using a small speaker, placed in an incubator about 20 cm from the baby's ear with a volume of 65-75 decibels and at a frequency of 1000 Hz (Webb et al, 2015); (Nocker-Ribaupierre et al, 2015); and (Jabraeili et al, 2016).…”

Family-centered music therapy—Empowering premature infants and their primary caregivers through music: Results of a pilot study

“…stabilization of respiratory rate) in premature infants [41][42][43] and on the preterm brain development [44]. Until recently, only a few randomized controlled trials have reported data for parents, despite the fact that the integration of parents is described in family-centered music therapy approaches [45][46][47]. The focus of the above mentioned studies has been limited to reducing maternal anxiety [45,[48][49][50][51][52], the reduction of stress [53], the improvement of the mother-infant interaction [54,55] and bonding [45,47,49].…”

“…Until recently, only a few randomized controlled trials have reported data for parents, despite the fact that the integration of parents is described in family-centered music therapy approaches [ 45 – 47 ]. The focus of the above mentioned studies has been limited to reducing maternal anxiety [ 45 , 48 – 52 ], the reduction of stress [ 53 ], the improvement of the mother-infant interaction [ 54 , 55 ] and bonding [ 45 , 47 , 49 ]. Until now, studies on whether a reduction in the symptoms of postpartum depression in mothers of premature infants can be achieved using music therapy [ 56 , 57 ] are rare.…”