Rapid effects of neonatal music therapy combined with kangaroo care on prematurely-born infants

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of music therapy (MT) combined with kangaroo care as dual treatment (DT) on the physiological responses of preterm infants compared with the influence of kangaroo care (KC) only. The infants' heart rate, respiration, transcutaneous O2 saturation and blood pressure were measured before, during, and after every therapy session. Sixty-one preterm infants born at a 24 to 36 week gestational age (GA) participated in the study. During KC, each infant was kept in skin-to-skin contact or held by a parent, and during DT sessions, the infant received music therapy in addition to KC. The DT and KC therapy sessions alternated. The results revealed that repeated DT and KC decreased the pulse, slowed down the respiration and increased the transcutaneous O2 saturation. The DT affected the blood pressure significantly more compared with the KC. Self-reports by the parents post-therapy suggest that DT may relax and calm both infants (51%) and parents (63%). In conclusion we propose that repeated combination of music therapy and kangaroo care may be more beneficial for preterm infants than KC alone in terms of certain physiological outcomes and parent self-reports. Keywords: premature infantmusic therapykangaroo caredual therapyphysiological response