Introduction
The music has been the ultimate source of soothing and peaceful vibes around. Can you recall the time, when you are surrounded by the negativity of the surroundings like anger, aggression, anxiety, hatred, etc., and just put the headphones on and explore the new domains of peace? This strategy works every time for almost every one of us! The relaxed and solace vibes of soothing music help the neurotransmitters to calm down the brain nerves and thus, allowing you to attain a soothing embrace. Thus, we have MUSIC THERAPY.
The same strategy of listening to soothing hymns is found to be advantageous and progressive to the unborn baby in the womb. The brain and heart are the initial developing organs of the fetus. Hence, they can comprehend the difference between distinct sounds. These tones a baby hears can create a great impact on the unborn baby, which can be positive as well as negative.
Music therapy is a psychological treatment given to the person suffering from anxiety, depression, traumatic disorders, etc. Unlike other psychological treatments, this method doesn’t focus on discussing the issues, rather it’s an artistic treatment to bring in peace and heal the affected intellect.
Pregnancy is contemplated to be the most critical and beautiful duration in a Woman’s life at the same time. It is the time where she is all set to bring the new life into existence. Everything a mother wants in this period is to protect her child from all the adversities in the surrounding either be mental or physical. Thus, Obstetrics and Gynaecologists often recommend that physical exercises and psychological exercises can be beneficial for the mother as well as baby to generate enough strength to fight back the abnormalities and ensure safe and healthy growth of the fetus. Music therapy is one of such most recommended practices suggested by experts.
What is Music Therapy?
Our brain is one of the most robust organs of our body that keeps a track record of all the things that happen around us. This creates the aura of stress and negativity when something negatively surprising comes up! In such situations, music acts as a healing remedy to mind and intellect bringing back the peaceful ambiance.
Listening to soft, optimistic, and soothing music hymns to attain the intellectual recovery of mind and souls is Music Therapy.
Numerous studies have found that music helps in stimulating neurotransmitters and promotes the healthy and natural secretion of Oxytocin and Dopamine hormones. These hormones are well known for their abilities to bring feelings of joy and love.
What are the benefits of music in Prenatal Pregnancy?
Music as in developed humans can do wonders in modifying mental and physical health, so it does it in the babies too. Although there is more to add to the list, let’s have a look!
In the prenatal case of pregnancy, the brain and heart are developed within 16-18 weeks. Until the 23-24 weeks of pregnancy, the babies can hear the sounds coming from outside the womb and show its effects as well. Let’s see how can positive effects of music and music therapy help the premature baby!
- Growth: Music is well known for its ability to promote growth and development in the baby. The child can attain healthy mental and physical growth with the soothing effect of music. Music provides an upliftment to the mental growth of the child, which directly works as a trigger to ensure physical growth as well.
- Development: Studies have found that the prenatal child who underwent musical therapy showed better cognitive skills than those who didn’t. Healthy development of the brain and mind is essential for the healthy birth of the baby, which can be acquired by music therapy.
- Responses: Music therapy is found to promote healthy and effective responses. Music acts as a stimulus on the baby’s intellect to respond. These response actions are the backbone of mental cognitive responses which creates a long-term response.
- Learning acquisition: Role of the music is to develop the all-abroad development of the brain, targeting each part. Listening to music or undergoing musical therapy during pregnancy helps the child to develop profound learning skills, prompt grasping power, and sharp memory. Also, the language acumen of the child is improvised with the help of music therapy.
- Analytical Learning: Mathematical and analytical skills are contemplated to be the most difficult ones to get a grip on. Music therapy expands the prospects of analytical learning, which advantageous in learning mathematical skills in the forthcoming. The long-term effect of these prospects plays a significant role in bolstering school scores.
- Sleep Routine: Music can help soothe the little one and procure him with a sound sleep. Infants are usually prone to weak sleep, which can affect their health. Listening to soft, soothing music during prenatal pregnancy is found to assist the baby to attain sound sleep at ease. This music therapy can thus be applied even during the postnatal period to ensure prosperous sleep.
Who doesn’t wish to live a healthy lifestyle for their new-born? And implementation of simple and flexible ways is what everyone seeks. Music therapy is one such proven technique that improves the baby’s mental and physical temperament in both the postnatal and prenatal pregnancy period.
What are lullabies? Are they a part of music therapy during the pregnancy?
Lullabies are the collection of soothing and soulful hymns recited to create a protective ambiance around the baby and help him gain a night of sound sleep. Lullabies are been used for quite a long in every part of the world for children of diverse stature. These are been recited in every part of the world in different languages and are given cultural importance as well.
Lullabies are surely a type of music therapy given to infants. The role of music therapy is to calm down the chaos around and allow the baby to earn a sound sleep, and lullabies do the same. Lullabies can be any music practice ranging from traditional and cultural melodies to nursery rhymes or sometimes even devotional melodies with soothing tones. Numerous musical instrumentals also deliver the desired results in the infants and prenatal fetus, thus musical instrumentals can also be included in the list of lullabies. All the mentioned tones are well-known for their therapeutic use in musical therapy, and hence lullabies can be said as an integral part of music therapy during prenatal as well as postnatal pregnancy.
What does, a harsh sound or noise do to the baby and mother during pregnancy?
The brain of the fetus or an infant is very delicate and can be affected even by minor alterations. It may seem that the baby is unable to hear what goes outside, but it’s a myth. The fetus can experience every single aspect her mother goes through with intensified results. The loud sound, aggressive behavior, shouting, tense situations, etc., all affect the mental state of the child, which are the external facts and create adverse effects on the fetus.
Harsh sound it noise bring a tense situation to the mother and change the internal bodily functions. As the baby resides in the womb, he too gets affected by the adversities of the situation creating havoc in the small mind. This havoc can create prolonged effects on the baby’s intellect altering his growth and development in the forthcoming. Also, the mother is in a vulnerable state while she is in her pregnancy period. Stressful situations can result in serious changes that can be further recovered.
Hence, the pregnant lady is often advised to stay away from stressful situations in both physical and mental aspects, to save the fetus from any harnessing condition. As a remedy for such situations, the mother is recommended to perform healthy physical exercises, yoga, and also musical therapies to allow both mother and the child to recover from any stressful situation.
Conclusion
Music therapy is like food to the body. Our body needs a regular nutritional supply for healthy going, and our mind needs music therapy. Music therapy is more advantageous in prenatal pregnancy as the baby doesn’t have any other way to relax and calm down his mind. A mother can only procure him healthy physical supports and for proper mental and intellectual growth, she can rely on music therapy, which not only works best for her child but also for herself. Music therapy can change the entire world for both, the mother and the child during prenatal as well as postnatal pregnancy.