A below the fold front-page article by Pam Belluck in this morning's New York Times highlights recent research published in Pediatrics that suggests live music may reduce physical manfiestations of stress among premature infants. The study found that infants exposed to live music had lower heart and respiratory rates, had more and better sleep and had improved sucking reflexes.
My first reaction to this article was "of course!" What parent doesn't understand, intuitively, the value of singing to a young child to calm them down? In our house, we an extensive song catalogue to fit various moods and circumstances. My wife went so far as to quasi-formally designate a special lullaby for each child that we sang to them almost nightly for the first three years of their lives. The kids will sometimes ask for their songs even now, although as they get older they do so with some embarrassment. And just as the Music Therapists in the Pediatrics study did, we took ordinary songs we liked and sang those. Twinkle-Twinkle has nothing on James Taylor or The Beatles. Not all of our songs were lullabys and, unlike in the study, not all of them were designed to soothe. We had a particularly jaunty song for waking up and getting your clothes on. Sadly, as the kids have aged and the demands of school have replaced unfettered at-home playing, that song has turned into a chorus of yelling - "GET DOWNSTAIRS AND EAT, NOW!"
I don't think we needed this research to know that live music has a powerful impact on all of us (it calms me down, I know that much). However, what I love about these studies is that they serve an important role in helping healthcare providers realize that lots of different kinds of folks are responsible for improving health. As licensed providers we have a hard time appreciating the value of "lay-people" in promoting health. Of course the reality is that healthcare providers have only the most limited role in promoting health as it is a construct that permeates our entire society. In order to help our patients, we have to see beyond our stethescopes and begin to appreciate the enormous impact that others can have as equal members of the healthcare team. We have to not only respect, but seek-out transdisciplinary opportunities to improve health.
Imagine the rounding of the future in a pediatric hospital: nurses, physicians, students, parents, public health professionals, social workers, allied health professionals and mental health workers meeting and engaging with patients and families to promote health. And maybe, just maybe, a young woman with a guitar in the center of it all singing a Carol King cover.
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