What will pregnancy be like in 2008?

Pregnancy has been around since the beginning of time. I guess Eve was the mother of us all and we don't know too much about that except that she had sons. Wonder who their lives were?? Anyway, we learn more and more each year about pregnancy and the developing fetus. We still have the classic problems of morning sickness, strange cravings, uncomfortable sleeping, swollen legs, feet, and extremities and worries about how the baby is developing. We also have worlds of new information about when the fetus is developing various body systems and body parts so that women can take the proper pre-natal vitamins and eat the most nutritious foods. But do they? I believe that most pregnant women do the best they can but with the pressures of life in 2008, it's not easy. So, what is easy? I'm sure you know my answer...singing to the unborn child every night is an easy but powerful thing to do. Research from all over the world documents the lullabies sung by the mother increase the unborn baby's sense of calm and well-being as well as the mother's sense of well-being. Are you afraid your voice isn't good enough? Well, the fact is that your baby hears yor voice every time you speak or laugh or cough or sneeze. Your voice is that most beautiful sound that your baby hears simply because it is connected to his feeling warm, safe and secure. Try singing just a little something. it doesn' even have to be a lullaby! If you don't know any tunes, try my lullaby CD. You can get it here by download or you can order the CD. I play 20 different familiar tunes on the piano so that you can learn them and them sing them in your own voice and your own key. Try it! You'll be glad and so will your baby!

Having a Baby This Christmas??

Ho, ho, ho! Expecting a little extra-special gift this Christmas season? That's great! Congratulations! If you've been reading my ebooks or ezines for awhile, you know that I'm a huge proponent of singing to your unborn child. Normally I talk about singing traditional lullabies, but really, it's not so important what you sing as it is just that you sing something soft and gentle in your own voice to your own baby. I think that things like "Silent Night, ""White Christmas," or anything slow and soft and sweet is absolutely fine!
Don't worry that your unborn or newborn baby might be critical of your voice. All babies love their mother's voices so just sing with love and baby will really respond positively! If you have questions, just email me!

Medicines you should never give your baby

Babies and children are much more likely than adults to have adverse drug reactions, so giving your baby prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) medication is serious business. (In fact, until your baby reaches her half birthday, consult a doctor before giving her any medication at all, other than a carefully measured baby dose of acetaminophen once she's at least 3 months old.)Here are eight medicines you shouldn't give your baby:
AspirinNever give your baby aspirin or any medication containing aspirin. Aspirin can make a child susceptible to Reye's syndrome — a rare but potentially fatal illness. Don't assume that the children's medicines found in drugstores will be aspirin-free. Aspirin is sometimes referred to as "salicylate" or "acetylsalicylic acid." Read labels carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist if you're not sure whether a product is aspirin-free.
Over-the-counter cough and cold medicines In October 2007 a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted to recommend that these medicines not be given to children under 6 years old. Pediatricians have complained for years that these medicines aren't effective and reportedly have caused dangerous side effects such as seizures, hallucinations, and even death. So if your baby's miserable with a cold, try other options, like a humidifier and plenty of liquids.
Anti-nausea medications Don't give your baby an anti-nausea medication (prescription or OTC) unless her doctor specifically recommends it. Most bouts of vomiting are pretty short-lived, and babies and children usually handle them just fine without any medication. In addition, anti-nausea medications have risks and possible complications. (If your baby is vomiting and begins to get dehydrated, contact her doctor for advice on what to do.)
Adult medicationsGiving your baby a smaller dose of medicine meant for an adult is dangerous. If the label doesn't indicate an appropriate dose for a baby her size, don't give that medication to your baby.
Any medication prescribed for someone else or for another reason Prescription drugs intended for other people (like a sibling) or to treat other illnesses may be ineffective or even dangerous when given to your baby. Give her only medicine prescribed for her and her specific condition.
Anything expired Toss out medicines, prescription and OTC alike, as soon as they expire. Also get rid of discolored or crumbly medicines — basically anything that doesn't look the way it did when you first bought it. After the use-by date, medications may no longer be effective and can even be harmful. Don't flush old drugs down the toilet, as they can contaminate groundwater and end up in the drinking water supply. See what our expert says about how to safely dispose of expired medication.
Extra acetaminophen Some medicines contain acetaminophen to help ease fever and pain, so be careful not to give your baby an additional separate dose of acetaminophen. If you're not sure what's in a particular medicine, don't give her acetaminophen or ibuprofen until you've first gotten the okay from your doctor or pharmacist.
Chewables Chewable tablets are a choking hazard for babies. If your baby's eating solids and you want to use a chewable tablet, crush it first, then put it in a spoonful of soft food, like yogurt or applesauce. (Of course, you need to make sure your baby eats the entire spoonful in order to get the complete dose.)
A cautionary note Some herbal remedies Many herbal remedies are gentle and safe, but just because something is natural, or derived from a plant, doesn't mean it's safe for your baby. Herbal products can cause allergic reactions, liver damage, and high blood pressure. In certain doses or when combined with the wrong medications, they can be fatal.Check with your baby's doctor or an alternative medicine practitioner before giving your baby any herbal products. And always let the doctor know about any herbal remedies your baby's taking before she prescribes a medication.

How much do you know about newborns?

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- It's hard to believe now, but once upon a time, Michelle Duggar was a new mom. Now the Arkansas mother is famous for having 17 children, but she can still remember how her first child had a huge belly button when he was born 19 years ago.
"I was like, 'Something is wrong with my baby!' " says Duggar. "It was kind of a shock."
But Duggar's pediatrician explained that Joshua's bulging belly button was nothing to worry about. He told her it would probably go away by his second birthday, and indeed it did. That's why Duggar didn't panic when her fifth child, Jessa, was also born with what's technically called an "umbilical hernia." (Click to see an umbilical hernia)
Huge belly buttons, acne befitting an adolescent, and swollen breasts (on boys, too!) are just a few of the surprises that sometimes await parents. "I can get some really panicked parents," says Dr. Laura Jana, pediatrician and co-author of "Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality." "There are many things that look so dramatic, but actually are perfectly normal."
Here, from Jana and other pediatric authorities, are five newborn shockers that really are nothing to worry about
Baby acne
Jana says she gets lots of phone calls about baby faces full of zits, which usually happens when a baby is 3 or 4 weeks old. "Baby acne can be very dramatic and very red, and all over the face," she says.
It's also normal, harmless, and usually goes away. Baby acne occurs when hormonal changes stimulate oil glands in the baby's skin, according to the National Institutes of Health. It usually goes away on its own with a few weeks. "Parents sometimes want to wash it with soaps or astringents," says Jana, who advises them just to leave it alone. (Click here to see baby acne)
Big baby boobs
Again, hormones are the culprit here. A baby who's been bathing in mom's hormones for nine months can sometimes come out of the womb with enlarged breasts -- even boys. (Click here to see what they look like) Sometimes even a little milk comes out (called "witch's milk"). Both conditions go away in a few weeks and are of no concern, according to the NIH.
Crossed eyes
Jana, and her coauthor, Jennifer Shu, say parents also worry about crossed eyes. In the first six weeks of life, many babies cross their eyes. If it goes on past six weeks, call your pediatrician, advised the Children's Medical Center of Dallas, Texas.
Cradle cap
Being a parent of a newborn is stressful enough -- imagine looking down and seeing thick, scaly patches on your baby's tiny, delicate head. It's called cradle cap (Click here to see it) and it's harmless, pediatricians say.
According to the Mayo Clinic's Web site, cradle cap usually goes away within a few months, but can look pretty unsightly in the meantime. The Mayo Clinic advises washing your baby's hair once a day with mild baby shampoo, and loosening the scales with a small soft-bristled brush before rinsing the shampoo.
Third nipple
Some parents are shocked to see their baby has a third nipple. But according to the NIH, they're actually fairly common. Small and not well formed, a third (and perhaps more) nipples can be seen below the regular two.
The NIH's Web site says no treatment is needed, and no need to worry -- the extra nipples will not develop into breasts at puberty.
So if your baby has one of these conditions and you're still worried -- even though you realize that it's probably not a big deal, call your pediatrician, advises Jana. "To be respectful, don't call at 2 in the morning. But you should call," she says.
Jana says it's normal to still be concerned after your doctor has said everything's OK.
Sharon Roth was so worried about her son Peter's huge belly button when she took him home from the hospital that she e-mailed a photo of it to her pediatrician, Dr. Lance Goodman, who was on vacation in Europe.
"He e-mailed me back saying it was fine, and I felt better," says Roth, who lives in Boca Raton, Florida.
Peter is now 6 weeks old, and even though Goodman has reassured her many times, she still feels uneasy about his belly button, which she says is the size of a large strawberry.
"Dr. Goodman told me it will go away. I hope it's soon," she says.

Do you have a sick baby?

Music Therapy Helps Sick Babies October 15, 2007 on 6:05 pm
Researchers found that music therapy helps sick babies in intensive care in maintaining normal behavioral development, making them less irritable, upset and less likely to cry. Research on 40 infants, divided into three groups: those hospitalised and receiving music therapy; those hospitalised and not having music therapy; and healthy babies, cared for at home, without music therapy. The hospitalised infants who received music therapy had up to 12 sessions of the therapist gently singing to them and touching them in a way that directly related to the therapist’s perception of the social needs of the babies.
It was found that music therapy supported the infants’ behavior - these infants maintained the same levels of irritability and crying that they had at admission.Meanwhile, those babies who did not have music therapy deteriorated in their irritability and crying behavior - coping less with their hospitalization as time went on. The babies who received music therapy used up less energy compared with the babies who did not receive the therapy. If a baby is less irritable and cries less, this has implications for rate of healing and weight gain, two significant factors which contribute to the length of a hospital stay.
Need more information on colic and crying? Click Here!

Taking Care of a Preemie

Having a tiny preemie can be daunting for the bravest of souls. No doubt about it! Rarely do people know that they will give birth to a preemie therefore most people are in quite a state of shock when they go into labor early and deliver a tiny little bundle of love that can be held in one hand easily.
Today there is a lot more medical information on caring for preemies than ever before. My suggestions is to hold this baby and sing to her as often as you can. Depending on what else is going on, you might not be allowed to hold the baby more than a few minutes at a time. In those precious moments, do some soft singing, humming or crooning to your sweet preemie.

When can my baby hear?

Just a few weeks ago I spoke at a major Southern university on "The Healing Power of Music." This was a fairly general lecture covering the many benefits of music in a healthcare setting. Since pregnant women and babies are a priority of mine I went into som detail about the importance of singing to your unborn child from the second trimester on. There were a fair number of medical professionals in the audience and one physician told me afterwards that he was not aware that the developing fetus could hear outside sounds so clearly from the 4-5 month gestation.

Those of us that are sound healers, women who sing lullabies and anyone who loves babies makes it their business to know these things but sometimes we have to educate our doctors and that's OK. Just be sure to pass along important and accurate information! Happy singing!

I have a particular commitment to helping pregnant women and new mothers be as educated and positive as possible. Becoming a mother can be pretty scary, especially if it's a surprise or an unexpected pregnancy. Very young women are especially at risk not to bond well with their infants because they just don't have the maturity or information (sometime, not always!). I believe that understanding the benefits and importance of music to the developing infant can be very empowering for the mother and I offer this article I came across earlier today at a site called "Make Way for Baby!"

Music to stimulate your baby

Once babies develop hearing in the fifth month, music is excellent for aural stimulation and to soothe the baby. As many studies have proved, fetus react to the music, if it is presented in an organized way. Immediately after birth, a baby distinguishes the mother's voice and show preferences for sounds heard while it was still in the womb. Music heard while in the womb seams to give babies -after born- a feeling of confidence and relaxation.However, mothers can give their babies the emotional benefits of music even before hearing develops at five months. Mothers who set aside time to relax daily by listening to music also help their babies feel calmer and happier. Pregnant women and babies share hormones, so there is a close connection between the emotional well-being of the mother and that of the child she carries. Additionally music played during childbirth can relieve expectant mothers' anxiety, help release endorphins and reduce the need for anesthesia.

Babies are tuned into rhythm

A study from Cornell in 2005 provides some fascinating insight into the musical and rhythmic talents of infants. Please send me your comments and questions regarding this article or anything about babies and music.

Baby has the beat but quickly loses the ability to detect alien rhythms, studies find

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Babies have us beat when it comes to picking up languages and distinguishing faces from foreign cultures. But babies also have the beat: Researchers at Cornell University and the University of Toronto find that babies also can recognize unfamiliar musical rhythms far more readily than adults can.
According to two recent studies, six-month-old babies can detect subtle variations in the complex rhythm patterns of Balkan folkdance tunes as easily as can adult Bulgarian and Macedonian U.S. immigrants. But other Western adults find it exceedingly difficult, said Erin Hannon, who receives her Cornell Ph.D. this August before she heads to Harvard University as an assistant professor.

Loretta Falco, University of Toronto, Mississauga
Erin Hannon, right, asks a mother to wear headphones playing music so that she won't influence her baby's behavior. The baby watches a cartoon paired with music on two monitors (one not shown). Hannon measures how long the baby looks at the cartoon paired with each type of music.
"But by the time babies are 12 months old, they much more closely resemble adults who are more sensitive to rhythms in their own culture's music than to rhythms in a foreign musical culture," said Hannon.
Her studies on how infants learn foreign musical rhythms more readily than adults are co-authored with University of Toronto's Sandra Trehub. Their first study, published in Psychological Science (Vol. 16:1, 2005), tested how well first- and second-generation Bulgarian and Macedonian immigrants as well as North American adults and 6-month-olds can perceive complex rhythmic patterns in Western and Balkan music. Their most recent study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Online Early Edition (Aug. 15-19), added 12-month-olds to the analysis.
Just as babies learn to tune in to the particular sounds that have meaning in their cultures, Hannon suspects that the developmental trajectory for learning musical rhythm is similar to that of language and speech.
Hannon and Trehub assessed infants' ability to detect complex rhythms by monitoring how long the babies stared at a cartoon; the same cartoon was always paired with two different versions of a song -- one version maintained the basic rhythm of the original song (which the babies heard previously), while the other disrupted it.
"If the infants showed greater interest in one of the two versions, it's because they detected a difference between the two," said Hannon, explaining that infant looking time has proven to be a reliable method to assess infant perception.
She said that infant brains are more flexible in processing different word sounds and speech patterns from a variety of speakers, and her research suggests that they also are more flexible than adults in categorizing different types of musical structures. "But it isn't long before they settle on those that are most common and meaningful to their cultures," she added. The state of the brain in adults, however, is much more stable, making it difficult for them to learn foreign languages, recognize faces from unfamiliar racial groups and also, the researchers find, to perceive rhythmic patterns in music foreign to their cultures.
"We actually shape and tune our perceptual processes in a manner that is specific to the music of our culture," Hannon said. "We showed that young infants, who have much less experience listening to music, lack these perceptual biases and thus respond to rhythmic structures that are both familiar and foreign. Although we know that young infants perceive speech in a manner that is language-general, our findings are unique and important in suggesting that the same is true for perception of musical rhythms."
Just as in the case of language, it is adaptive to learn about the structures in your own culture -- it makes you a better and more efficient animal, Hannon said. "Adults become less sensitive to foreign rhythms because they become more efficient at processing familiar rhythmic structures of their own culture (Western) -- this is natural and adaptive." Aug. 15, 2005

Can Babies Un-Ravel Classical Music?

Recently a study was done that tested infants ability to understand and remember some very complex classical music. This story was found on CNN: Canadian researchers say babies can remember complex classical music, even after a two week delay. Their findings were detailed at a recent meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.
"We have this idea that babies are maybe poor listeners, but in fact, they're not," said Beatriz Ilari of McGill University in Montreal.
For her study, Ilari, a violinist, music teacher and doctoral candidate, chose the "Prelude" and "Forlane" from "Le Tombeau de Couperin" by Maurice Ravel.
"First, because it's unusual," said Ilari. "It is a beautiful piece of music, also a piece that, for people who are trained in classical music, we know it's considered very complex," she said.
Researchers gave a Ravel CD to parents, either the "Prelude" or "Forlane." Parents were told to play that piece to their seven- to eight-month-old infants three times a day, for 10 days. The CDs were then collected. After two weeks of not hearing that music, babies were tested at a McGill laboratory.

This drawing shows how the babies were tested.

The test consisted of listening to 20-second excerpts of music, eight from the familiar piece mixed with eight from the unfamiliar one. During testing, the baby was seated comfortably on a parent's lap in a three-wall pegboard booth.
A red light was mounted on each side of the booth, to the left and right of the baby. One light would blink to attract the baby's attention. Once the baby looked at the light, a musical excerpt would come on through a loudspeaker hidden behind the light.
The excerpt would keep playing until the baby turned its head away, in another direction. Listening times were recorded for each excerpt and added up for each piece.
The researchers found that babies listened 20-30 percent longer to the music piece they had heard at home, compared to an unfamiliar piece.
Ilari says she knows the babies learned, because the same tests on a control group of infants who hadn't heard either piece of music showed those babies had no preference for either music selection.
One reason for the study, said the McGill scientists, is the constant questioning by parents about what music is appropriate for infants and children.
"There's this frenzy that the parents want their babies to be so smart," said Ilari.
But there's a lot more to music appreciation than just trying to expose a baby to the most complicated pieces with hopes of creating a musical prodigy.

Teacher Dawn Bell plays for a group of eight month olds at the Creme de la Creme day care center in Atlanta.

Parents are usually the first music educators a child has, and the bonding experience of listening together is at least as important as the type of music they choose. Whether it's Tchaikovsky or "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," when parents enjoy something and they play it for their children, they make it more pleasant for the children, said Ilari.
She says she and her colleagues learned a lot more from the study than just the amount of time the babies spent listening to the classical selections.
"We had a lot of parents, many unfamiliar with classical music, say that they really liked Ravel," said Ilari. "They asked to keep it after the study, because it was helpful in putting their baby to sleep, or calming the baby at feeding time," she said.
Some parents who introduced music to their kids at very early ages say there are a wide range of benefits. Victor and Adele Ronchetti's ten year old son Victor picked up a violin at age four and hasn't put it down. He's now in a young artists program at the Juilliard School in New York.
"Listening to music is great," said Adele Ronchetti. "I think playing an instrument is terrific. It keeps you away from the television set. You never hear about anybody who plays the violin building a bomb in their basement. I mean, I think it keeps you on the right track socially, it builds your self esteem. I think it's good for so many things," she said.

Excellent Book on Music Therapy with Premature Infants

This week I ordered a book that looks great and is chock-full
of helpful and important information for the parent or friend of a Preemie or a Newborn.
The book is called "Music Therapy for Premature and Newborn Infants" and the author is Monika Nocker-Ribaupierre. Publisher is Barcelona publishers and I got it from Amazon.com. If you go to my site, www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com/amazon.html you can go directly to Amazon and search for this book which will come up immediately. I paid almost $25.00 for the book, but like I say, it is chock-full or helpful info.

Enjoy!

Alice

The "Baby-Whisperer" in Boston

In the city of Boston, Mass, lives a woman known as the "baby whisperer." Enny Wiederhold , an 81-year-old with curly brown hair and a confident gait, is a highly-valued volunteer and Brigham and Women's Hospital. The Boston Globe reports "Three times a week, she drives from her home in Winchester to the hospital, where she stays for hours, stroking and holding prematurely born babies so fragile they sometimes stay in the hospital for months after their birth. Her job is to lull babies to sleep when their parents cannot be there, because they work, have other children, or live far from the hospital.
It is a job Wiederhold took on more than 15 years ago, when she came to the hospital bored with retirement and eager to use the skills she honed over 15 years as a nurse, even if it meant working as a volunteer.
Doctors have long known that quieting and stroking a crying baby has powerful benefits for their health. When babies, especially premature ones, cry, they waste energy that otherwise can be used to build their young bodies. Cradling babies comforts them and helps quiet and lull them."

Add a lullaby to this and you have one happy, serene baby!

Lullabies for Animals??

The saga continues with the two stranded whales being led back to their home in the ocean. These creatures somehow got into a shipping lane in San Francisco Bay and have been hurt because of bumping into ships and boats. Scientists have tried playing recordings of whales feeding, mating, and even lullabies that they sing to their young. So far, no luck, but the work continues!

There is a theory that when babies are played music or sung to with the same melodies or tunes over and over, they become conditioned to feeling love and nurturance when they hear this music. All humans and probably most animals need to sing to their young and create this powerful association between sound and music with love, caring and nurturance!

Music in the NICU

When I was in NYC last week speaking to a hospital OB/GYN Grand Rounds, there was some discussion of the various ways music can be used in the NICU. Much of the research that has benn done in this area comes from FSU in Tallahassee and it appears that individual speakers or music delivery into each isolette is the norm. The smaller and frailer the infant, the more sensitive their ears are apt to be so the volume level and type of music must be chosen on an individual basis and then the staff must observe the infant's immediate and long-term reaction very carefully for any sign of discomfort or pain. That's the last thing we want to subject our tiniest patients to.

We also talked about the musical pacifier that plays ten seconds of a lullaby when the least amount of pressure is exerted on the nipple. This motivates the infant to suck more and harder, thus enabling them to suck better and gain weight faster. Very ingenious!

Generally speaking, lullabies or the mother softly singing is best. Stay tuned for my new ebook on "Music with Preemies" which should be coming out in the next few weeks! Have a great week-end!

Dr. Cash Speaks to OB-GYN Staff in NYC

Today I had the great pleasure of speaking at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. The staff there was warm and welcoming to me and received the information on music with pregnancy, preemies and newborns enthusiastically! My topic was "The Importance of Music with Pregnancy, Preemies, and Newborns." The residents, nurses, doctors, and guests asked great questions and shared personal stories that greatly enhanced the hour. I talked a little more than I expected to about the work of Jayne Standley and her musical pacifier which plays music when a preemie sucks on it, thus reinforcing the baby's desire to suck and resulting in faster weight gain and faster discharge from the NICU.

I'll write more about this in the days to come. Please feel free to write in your questions!

The Best-laid Plans

If you read last night's post, you know that I am going to NYC today to give a presentation on music with pregnancy, preemies and newborns on Thursday. I was supposed to almost be there by now but I got a phone call early this morning saying that my flight was delayed! I will have been in the Louisville airport for over three hours by the time I get on the plane. I sure would rather have spent those three hours in bed!!

But, of course I have my work with me and so have done a little but mostly just enjoyed people-watching and sipping on Starbucks skinny latte.

While at the hospital where I'm speaking o Thursday, I'm hoping to see their NICU and talk to them about how they use music with their tiny babes. I know they are using lullabies with circumcisions. Any questions you'd like me to ask?

Alice

Off to NYC to reveal music with infants techniques

Just wanted to let you know one last time before I leave for a speaking engagement in NYC that while I am there I will have a few slots still available for consultations or meetings. I'll be speaking at Grand Rounds at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn on Thursday morning, April 5th at 9:00 a.m.
I know that I have quite a few readers in New York City so please don't hesitate to call me at 502-419-1698 if you'd like to meet!
On Tuesday night, April 3rd, I'll be attending an orchestra concert in Carnegie Hall. My sister, Catherine Hudnall will be conducting the Norcross High School Orchestra and many of us will be attending this wonderful concert!
My presentation at Lutheran Hospital is entitled "The Importance of Music with Pregnancy, Preemies, and Newborns." It is a review of studies in all of these areas over the last decade as well as my recommendations for the pregnant woman, obstetricians and pediatricians. If you have any interest in this topic, contact me immediately so that I can put you on my 2007-2008 calendar.
The "Lullabies for Mother-Baby Bonding" CD is still a top seller and I'm planning to start offering bulk discounts for hospitals, nurseries, and large families!
Thanks for being a faithful reader!

Did you use music with your pregnancy?

Calling all women who used music during pregnancy and/or with childbirth! Next week I'll be giving a presentation in New York City on the importance of music during pregnancy and with preemies and newborns. I've done so much research on the topic that I decided to put together an ebook that I could offer to all women considering pregnancy or currently pregnancy. It turns out that music really does make a dramatic difference in the health of baby and mother and is so easy to implement.

Of course you know that my number one suggestion is always having the mother sing lullabies in her own natural voice. Despite the protests of some mothers that their voices are not "good enough," all of the research and anecdotal reports say that mother's voice is the one that all babies love best. If you think about it, that's the voice they've heard throughout their growth and devleopment and it's the one they most want to hear once they're born. BUT, any live voice is best. CDs and videos are good for mother to learn lullabies and songs to sing but the ideal is for mother to sing.

If you live in the NYC area and would like to have a consultation or a short talk to your group, please contact me through my website, http://www.healingmusicenterprises.com/. I'll be there April 2-5. Also, please send me any of your own personal stories about your use of music with pregnancy or childbirth! Hope to see YOU soon!

Can Babies Remember Music Heard in the Womb?

With all the talk today about playing music for your baby during pregnancy, a logical follow-up question that I hear all the time is: can the baby remember the music heard in the womb? The good news is "yes!". Researchers in London have put tiny cameras in the womb and measured the amount of time that the baby turns her head toward the music. With each subsequent playing of the same song, the baby "pays attention" a little longer and after birth, the baby responds by quieting down when fussy and also showing signs of recognition. For more information, go to http://www.le.ac.uk/psychology/aml11/aml11.html. For a beautiful album of familiar lullabies, go to http://www.healingmusicenterprises.com/products/lullabies/lullabies.html

Tiniest Preemie Goes Home

Today the news media were showing pictures of the happy family of the smallest preemie ever to survive. This little girl weighed less than a pound and was about 14 inches long I believe. The picture here shows her tiny feet between the doctors fingers! Let's hope she had lots of lullabies sung to her. I'd sure be interested to know.

Do you have a Valentine Baby?

Did you have a baby on Valentine's? Thousands of people did all over the world and hopefully they're singing and cooing and crooning to these special babies. Why should you sing to your newborn? Singing bonds mother and baby with sonic love vibrations that last a lifetime. Music therapy research is full of studies that you can Google and read for hours. Whether your baby was born on Valentines or years ago or isn't quite born yet, learn some lullabies or songs of any kind that you can sing to our child!

Music with circumcision

As the mother of three girls, I never had to make a decision about circumcision, but I remember discussing it at length with my husband. Our pediatrician had told us that the most important thing is for sons to "match" their fathers. I was also being told that most baby boys did not need the procedure unless they had an abnormally long foreskin. We really agonized about it until we found that the baby was a girl!

Several years ago, when I was still working in a large hospital here, I proposed a study on the use of music and lullabies for the procedure. To my amazement, many nurses were against it. Apparently I wasn't the first person to think of this idea:

SINGING TAKES STING OUT OF PAIN FOR BABIES
INDIANAPOLIS - Lullabies can do more than put babies to sleep, say researchers at the IU School of Nursing at IUPUI; they actually can help relieve pain.
Nursing professors Juanita Keck, Betsy Joyce and Janis Gerkensmeyer have completed a small study of 40 babies showing that newborns that listened to music during circumcision and blood sampling had significantly less pain by the end of the procedure. The neonates also maintained a steady heart rate throughout the circumcision procedure, and the degree to which their blood was able to carry oxygen also was significantly better for those babies who listened to music.
The researchers chose lullabies timed to a heartbeat - music that is tolerable to medical practitioners and pleasant to babies - to play throughout the procedure.
Keck says that playing music during surgical procedures is a non-invasive and cost-effective tool that is easy to implement. The challenge, she feels, is convincing health-care providers that the music really is effective.
"If we can describe physically how it works, then this intervention could become much more widely used," said Keck.
To achieve that goal, the three nursing researchers are seeking funding to expand their study to a larger scale.

You are singing to your tummy,aren't you??

The world will always have pregnant women, thank goodness!!! And I believe that instinctively, women feel the urge to softly sing or hum when they're pregnant as they move through their days, weeks and months of having a little angel growing inside. The instinct has now been scientifically documented to be a good thing. Let me explain: The growing infant's ear becomes functional as early as the beginning of the second trimester! When baby hears Mama singing or humming, she automatically associates this with comfort, nurturing, safety, and love. If you're singing or humming on a daily basis for most of the pregnancy then these same tunes and songs are going to be an immediate "calmer" for your baby. Once born, if you sing to baby softly while nursing her it will be yet another calming and loving association. Have you tried this? If so, please share your experiences with us!

A New Year for Preemies

Do you have a newborn preemie? Are you scared? They're so tiny, so fragile, so helpless, but there are lots of easy and very helpful things that you can do! It's a new year and a new era for preemies. Research in music therapy, music medicine and music healing continues to demonstrate that what baby hears in utero has a crucial effect on later bonding with mother and other family members. It is so important to keep a health sonic environment for baby and not let her be bombarded with loud rock music, fighting, screaming, yelling or other unpleasant, chaotic sounds. Instead, singing to your unborn child can create a permanent bond of love, safety and security. Research has shown that preemies who had been sung to in utero and who continued to be sung to, gained weight faster and left the hospital faster.

Even if your preemie was not sung to in utero, it's not too late to start now. Yor voice is most familiar and will be comforting and encouraging. Give it a try. Let me know if I can help!