Lovenia Williams Ms.

Shoup Mixed Chorus 27 February 2014 How Music Affects the Womb and Preemie Babies The Womb How it Affects: Music being played for the womb affects the fetus in many ways: it calms down the heartbeat of the fetus, it gets the fetus more familiar to music and they can recognize that music after he/she is born. An obstetrician in California named Rene Van de Carr said that he observed a 33-week old fetus and noticed his paced breathing to the beat of Beethovens Fifth Symphony; he noted that the fetus enjoyed the music and he learned something from the music. Type of Music: The music that would be most preferable for the fetus would be any type of slow steady- paced music: maybe some nice classical music from Bach or Beethoven. Even peaceful nature sounds would be great as well. No matter what the music is the mother should lay back and relax as your fetus shall relax along with her. Volume and Duration: The volume of the music should be no more than 50 decibels which is no louder than a quiet washing machine. If you are listening for prolonged periods of time, the mother might have to put the volume even lower than 50 decibels. The mother should NEVER have earphones laid onto the stomach while music is playing. The earphones would ruin the ears of the fetus and raise the heartbeat because of how loud it would be. A report from The American Academy of Pediatrics in the

1900s have many studies that show if babies in the womb are exposed to louder noise over a prolonged period of time are most likely to have a decrease in birth weight, hearing loss, and become premature when born. Preemie Babies How it Affects: Music also affects preemie babies in a similar way that it affects the womb: it calms the heartbeat and breathing down, and improves sleeping and feeding (sucking) patterns. It simply just calms the breathing down to make the fetus more comfortable and calm. Type of Music: Some nice music to play for the baby would be lullabies preferably sung by a parent. Another thing to play is an Ocean Disc that replicates the sounds of the womb. A last possible sound of music would come from a box that is lightly tapped by fingers to sound like the mothers heart beat from when the baby was in the womb. Any slow and calming music would be great as well. Its just best if the parent sings any type of lullaby. Volume and Duration: If you are able to easily talk over the music quietly then the volume should be just fine. The duration could be as long as the mother would like. The mother could also play music for the baby every single day. The mother should make sure to not turn up the volume too loud to hurt the babys ears

Citations Milzoff, Rebecca. Ask a Best Doctor: Is Music in the Womb Good? New York News and Politics. April 2013. Nymag. 18 Feb. 2014. Bazian. "Can Music Help Premature Infants Sleep and Feed?" Ed. NHS Choices. Nhs.uk. NHS Choices, 16 Apr. 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. Fitzgerald, Kelly. Playing Music and Lullabies Help Soothe Premature Babies. MNT. April 2013. Medical News Today. 15 Feb. 2014.