Did you have a baby on Christmas??

Did you have a baby this Christmas season? So many babies have been on television this holiday season in the cutest little outfits. All of the babies born in one hospital here were wrapped in Christmas stockings and put in the viewing window like little stocking gifts. They did look cute but I wonder how the babies felt about it? I've seen lots of names for these babies like Carol, Noel, and Holly. I'm sure parents, family and friends get a lot out of this but down the road, the kids may not be so thrilled with their Christmas names.

As always, my message is just this: Sing to your baby, play music for her and have certain songs for certain activities like bathing, nursing, sleeping, and out for a walk. She will learn to recognize the time of day and activity by what music is playing and will contribute to her sense of security in the world. Give it a try!

Are you pregnant this Christmas?

I was pregnant with my first daughter over the Christmas of 1975. It was a beautiful memory that I'll never forget. She was born in April of 1976 and the Christmas before she was just beginning to move around so that I could feel it. We played lots of Christmas music for her and sang lots of carols and other music. I don't know whether there's any correlation but today she is a professional violinist!

If you are pregnant right now, please enjoy all the holiday music and enjoy this wonderful season! It's a joyous time of anticipation for everyone!

How early can baby hear?

Throughout my three pregnancies I wondered, "can my baby hear the music around me; can she hear my conversations with friends and family?" Well, I didn't know the answer then, but I do now! The developing ear is beginning to be functional by the beginning of the second trimester! Research shows that around the beginning of the 4th month, baby can hear Mom's heartbeat, digestive sounds and circulation sounds. Over the next six months hearing grows and by the last trimester baby can pretty much hear what you hear! What does this mean for the health of the baby? If you sing or hum a carefully selected 6 or 8 tunes for baby, these very same songs, sung after baby's birth, will calm and soothe baby immediately! They will be associated with warmth, nurturing and feeling safe. If perchance your little one comes early these songs will help her to gain weight faster, stabilize body rhythms and temperature and go home as much as five days earlier! According to hospital bills, one day in the neonatal intensive care unit is over $15,000 per day!! So start singing!!

If you don't know any lullabies, order my CD "Lullabies for Healthy Bonding." Link to this CD above.

Music and Preemies

Did you know that there has been quite a bit of clinical research on music with preemies? It's true. Several decades ago a man had the idea to make a tape for preemies that would be lullabies and nursery rhymes with a mother's heartbeat in the background. The tape was called "Baby Go to Sleep" and with the help of a grant from J.C. Penney, he gave thousands of them away to hospital NICU's as well as the regular newborn nurseries. The nurses and the mothers said the tape was miraculous in terms of instantaneously stopping crying and quieting fussy babies. Babies in the NICU gained weight faster and left the hospital days earlier as a result. It's so easy that most people overlook it as a therapeutic intervention. Give it a try!

A Musical Pacifier?

Now I've heard everything! Personally, I believe that a mother singing to her baby is the ideal way to soothe and comfort, especially a healthy newborn. But what about the preemies who must spend hours away from Mom, tucked away in a cold, sterile, hospital neo-natal intensive care unit? What about these poor little babes?

Well, it appears that someone has put a lot of thought into that and has come up with the musical pacifier! One of the serious problems of preemies is their inability to suck strongly enough to get the nurtrition they need. Preemies are, by definition, underweight and underdeveloped. They need to gain weight quickly so that their lungs can develop and they can breathe on their on.

Jane Standley, a music therapy professor at FSU has created a pacifier that actually plays music when the baby sucks on it and therefore reinforces the baby's desire to suck. Apparently, baby's have a natural appetite for music!

A brother's song

Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling. They found out that the new baby was going be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael sang to his sister in mommy's tummy. He was building a bond of love with his little sister before he even met her. The pregnancy progressed normally for Karen, an active member of the Panther Creek United Methodist Church in Morristown, Tennessee. ! In time, the labor pains came. Soon it was every five minutes, every three, every minute. But serious complications arose during delivery and Karen found herself in hours of labor. Would a C-section be required? Finally, after a long struggle, Michael's little sister was born. But she was in very serious condition. With a siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary's Hospital, Knoxville,Tennessee . The days inched by. The little girl got worse. The pediatrician had to tell the parents there is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst. Karen and her husband contacted a local cemetery about a burial plot. They had fixed up a special room in their house for their new baby but now they found themselves having to plan for a funeral. Michael, however, kept begging his parents to let him see his sister. I want to sing to her, he kept saying. Week two in intensive care looked as if a funeral would come before the week was over. Michael kept nagging about singing to his sister, but kids are never allowed in Intensive Care. Karen decided to take Michael whether they liked it or not. If he didn't see his sister right then, he may never see her alive. She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into ICU. I looked like a walking laundry basket. The head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed, "Get that kid out of here now. No children are allowed." The mother rose up strong in Karen, and the usually mild-mannered lady glared steel-eyed right into the head nurse's face, her lips a firm line. "He is not leaving until he sings to his sister" she stated. Then Karen towed Michael to his sister's bedside. He gazed at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. After a moment, he began to sing. In the pure-hearted voice of a 3-year-old, Michael sang: "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray." Instantly the baby girl seemed to respond. The pulse rate began to calm down and become steady. "Keep on singing, Michael," encouraged Karen with tears in her eyes. "You never know, dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away." As Michael sang to his sister, the baby's ragged, strained breathing became as smooth as a kitten's purr. "Keep on singing, sweetheart." "The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms". Michael's little sister began to relax as rest, healing rest, seemed to sweep over her. "Keep on singing, Michael." Tears had now conquered the face of the bossy head nurse. Karen glowed. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. Please don't take my sunshine away..." The next day...the very next day...the little girl was well enough to go home. Woman's Day Magazine called it The Miracle of a Brother's Song. The medical staff just called it a miracle.

A picture is worth a thousand words

This picture was taken during a C-section of a tiny preemie. The emeging infant reached out and took the surgeon's finger. Amazing!

Sing to your Newborn!

I recently visited a new mother and baby in the hospital. What a precious little girl this was too. The first thing I wanted to do was start humming a soft lullaby. It seems to be instinctive to want to lull a baby, but this little angel was already sleeping so soundly that I didn't. Is it OK to sing or hum to even talk softly to a newborn? Of course! There are very few "rights and wrongs" when it comes to that sort of thing. The main thing it to communicate with YOUR baby or grandchild or niece or nephew. Singing and humming convey a sense of "everything is going to be OK" and "all is well" better than most anything else after being fed and clothed.

Many new mothers are self-conscious about their singing. Not surprising. We live in a critical and judgmental society, but do it anyway! Babies are not a bit critical. Your baby has neard your voice for the past nine months and it is this voice that means love, acceptance, nurturing, home. Make up your own tunes, your own words. Take a tune you already know and put new words to it. It really doesn't matter. Please feel free to ask me questions. Just post them to this blog.

Happy humming!

Alice

Take My Hand

This is a dramatic picture of a premature infant being delivered by Cesarian section. You can see a tiny hand emerging from the sac the baby has been growing in and immediately grasping the doctor's hand. It would seem that we human's have a powerful need to connect from the moment of birth. Hopefully this baby's mother sang to her before delievery and soon thereafter.

What Does the Growing Infant Hear?

Many pregnant women don't realize that the growing baby's ear is beginning to be functional in the fourth month! Yes, according to Dr. Alfred Tomatis, by the beginning of the second trimester, the baby can hear mother's heartbeat, her digestive sounds, and the blood pulsing through her veins. By the beginning of the third semester, the infant can hear much of what Mom hears. You need to be very careful of your sonic environment and be especially careful to avoid loud, raucous sounds, screaming or violent sounds. Instead, take a few minutes each evening (or morning or afternoon) and sing some familiar lullabies or other soothing songs to you developing child. Research has shown that these same songs will comfort your child for years to come!

Do you know lots of lullabies? Please share them with me and I will publish them and give you credit in my upcoming ebook, "The Power of Lullabies."

Thanks for joining the blog!

Alice Cash

Music and the Infant Brain

It's amazing how many people still think that the unborn child is totally protected from her mother's environment, but the fact is that the infant brain is developing from the moment of conception and is affected by the sounds, feelings, and actions of the mother. There are certain organs that are on a genetically predetermined path and will not be affected by external events: the heart, the ovaries, the lungs are not affected by what is going on in mother's environment. The brain is different!

Research has shown that if the mother is listening to highly structured classical music, such as Mozart, Pachelbel, Bach, or other composers of the Baroque period, more neural connections develop in the infant brain and create and greater neural infrastructure for future learning. Fascinating, eh?

Music and the Human Bond

Think for just a minute about the way that music is used to connect human beings. From the first moment that a mother sings a lullaby to her new infant, the pattern of loving sound is imprinted on that baby’s psyche. After just a few hearings the infant will associate that pleasant sound with safety, love and warmth. Mothers (and fathers!) have been singing and lulling their infants with sound from time immemorial. We now know that when a mother sings to her infant, her brain releases oxytocin just as when she breastfeeds. This chemical immediately strengthens the bond between mother and child and makes the mother feel more maternal and loving toward her child. Throughout that child’s life, hearing that song or lullaby will bring back those warm, fuzzy feelings.

Will you sing to your child tonight?

Just found out you're pregnant...congratulations!

Having a baby is one of the most exciting, thrilling, highly anticipated and scary experiences in life. Believe me, I know. I am the mother of three beautiful young women, now 30, 25, and 23. I also had two miscarriages along the way. this blog is intended to be a forum for women who have just found out they're pregnant to come and get good, solid information, but also to post questions and concerns. If I don't know the answer, I will go to one of my professional resources and try to get it for you.

I also want to have a forum for mothers of preemies because that is always a frightening and unexpected event.

The underlying theme (no pun intended!) of everything here will be about how to incorporate music and sound for the health and well-being of mother and baby. Welcome to my newest blog!