Music Therapy in the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Content by Alaina LeBlanc

            Hospital settings can be notorious for generating loud and unpleasant noises. The positive and negative effects of noise contribute to an individual’s overall state of mind, physical, and mental health. 

           A premature baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), can hear a large range of sounds. Babies in the womb can hear their mother’s heartbeat and the low register sounds her parents’ voices. They can also hear the delicate whooshing sounds of their mother’s womb before they emerge into the world. After their birth, they hear high register beeps of machines and other babies crying and those become their first sounds of their new world.

             Music therapy has the ability to generate calming noise to counteract the influences of a loud, jarring, and unpredictable environment such as a hospital setting. It has the unique characteristic to create harmony, balance, and tranquility to a newborn baby.

              When working with infants in the NICU,  there is the unique opportunity to build a positive experience with sound from the ground up. Introducing these tiny babies to music therapy is a wonderful first step in creating a positive and peaceful environment in which to build a strong musical foundation.

              Infants who are fortunate enough to reap the benefits of music therapy are then accustomed to it as a practice and can therefore positively respond to it in years to come.

             Music therapy encourages a peaceful state of mind, while also tapping into the creativity of music as an art form. When children hear the articulate sounds of a melody from a young age they become familiar with music and can then connect on a higher emotional level.

       “The PATTERNS (Preventive Approach to Traumatic Experience by Resourcing the Nervous System) NICU music therapy model optimizes the auditory and dynamic environment as a critical component in the treatment protocol for neonates (Stewart 2009). As a preemptive treatment program to prevent and treat potential trauma incurred by neonates during their time in the NICU, a prime objective is to avoid heightened arousal and the complications that accompany it. PATTERNS recognizes the complex circumstances that affect the infant, family, and staff as a cohesive whole; deconstructs the events and factors that could lead to trauma; and designs a prevention protocol. Because, in this model, the challenge of noise and the use of music are integrated into the whole experience of the infant, family, and staff, music is used to soothe and mask, whereas noise is avoided or at least minimized.” 1  

1   Stewart, Kristen,  Music and Medicine, “PATTERNS - A Model for Evaluating Trauma in NICU Music THerapy: Part 1 - Theory and Design”  Volume 1, Number 1,  July 2009, 29-40  Print.

10 Incredible Things that YOU Made Happen: Number 9

Giving the "Gift of Music" 

As Children's Music Fund continues with its annual campaign, we want to reflect on the past year and say "Thank You!" Without your continued support of CMF, we wouldn't be able to serve chronically ill children in and out of the hospital. We will be sharing "10 incredible things..." with a new story each week throughout the campaign, please comment and share!

Number 9: Instrument Donation

This year you were able to bring the healing power of music to children by gifting musical instruments to children with life altering illnesses and chronic conditions. 

Below are some of the instruments that you have gifted to children in need: 

A keyboard went to a 6 year old boy with SMARD (Spinal Muscular Atrophy with Respiratory Distress)  and Charcot-Marie Tooth disease (a peripheral nervous system disorder affecting both his hands and his feet) in Los Angeles. He is using his keyboard to help regulate his breathing, and work on fine motor function in his hands. 

A violin went to a brain cancer survivor in Bakersfield. This 9 year old girl is using the violin to help connect the neurons in her brain to aide her recovery. She is excelling in school and making tremendous progress with music. Her mom writes,

"We are very thankful for Children's Music Fund, we are experiencing a wonderful journey. Esmerelda is greatly motivated and music is now a great part of her development. She is a straight A student and receiving school awards! Children's Music Fund, you guys are amazing!" 

Together we are doing great things!

Click HERE to participate in this year's Annual Fund!

10 Incredible Things that You Made Happen!

Children's Hospital Orange County

As the Children's Music Fund kicks off its annual campaign, we want to reflect on the past year and say "Thank You!" Without your continued support of CMF, we wouldn't be able to serve chronically ill children in and out of the hospital. We will be sharing "10 incredible things..." with a new story each week throughout the campaign, please comment and share!

Number 10:

One area that we have been able to make tremendous progress is in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital Orange County (CHOC)

Here's what CHOC, has to say about CMF!

I would love to share why we are so grateful for the Children's Music Fund.
The impact of music therapy on our NICU has been immeasurable!  Thanks to this incredible gift we are able to create both stimulating and relaxing moments, both of which help our tiny babies heal.  This new intervention also educates our medical staff on the value and impacts of therapeutic supports for premature patients.  The staff also benefit from not only knowing their patients are being cared for in such a special manner, but also by feeling the difference music makes on their professional day.

Stephanie DeMello, MS, CCLS
Child Life Manager
CHOC Children's Hospital

Together we are doing great things!

Click HERE to participate in this year's Annual Fund!

What Exactly is Music Therapy?

According to the American Music Therapy Association, "Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program"1

What Music Therapy Is...and Is Not

The more music the better, bring it on!

"But clinical MUSIC THERAPY is the only professional research-based discipline that actively applies supportive science to the creative, emotional, and energizing experiences of music for health treatment goals."1

Music Therapy is: 

• Music Therapists must have a bachelor's degree or higher in music therapy

• Music Therapists have completed 1200 hours of clinical training.

• Music Therapists Must hold a MT-BC credential, issued through Certification Board for Music  Therapists, which protects the public by ensuring competent practice and requiring continuing education.

• Music Therapy is an evidence based health profession with a strong research foundation.

• Music therapy degrees require knowledge in psychology, medicine and music.

Music Therapy is Not:

• A person with dementia listening to his favorite songs on an iPod with headphones.

• Celebrities performing at hospitals or schools.

• A piano player in a hospital

• Nurses playing background music for patients

• A choir singing on the pediatric floor of a hospital

"Music Therapy can make the difference between withdrawal and awareness, between isolation and interaction, between chronic pain and comfort - between demoralization and dignity" - Barbara Crowe (past president of National Association for Music Therapy) 

 At CMF our Board Certified Music Therapists:

• Work with children with brain injuries or brain trauma to help reconnect neurons and increase brain activity.

• Work with children to reduce asthma episodes

• Work with children in the hospital to reduce pain

• Work with children who have autism to improve communication capabilities and decrease stress and anxiety

• Work with pre-mature infants to improve sleep patterns and increase weight gain.

"Music is universal but it is also highly individual and empowering."2 

Music therapy is so individualized that "going forward doctors may actually be prescribing a 'course' of musical numbers"3

 Imagine getting a prescription for your very own "mixed tape" from your doctor!

Children's Music Fund is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization  committed to provide music therapy and bring the healing power of music to children with life altering and chronic conditions.  For more information or to make a donation please visit our website:  www.thecmf.org 

1. American Music Therapy Association http://www.musictherapy.org

2. Music As Medicine: A Historical Perspective and Review of Select Clinical Applications, Alternative and Complementary Therapies, October 2013 Talin Babikian, Lonnie Zeltzer, Vartan Tachdjian, Lindsay Henry, Elan Javanfard, Lara Tucci, Mary Goodarzi , Raffi Tachdjian 

3. Music is medicine to the brain..!! Dr. NK Venkataramanaa BGS Global Institute of Neurosciences