 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
Outside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a large bulletin board with pictures of premature infants who have since grown up to become big and healthy. Some are now adults, some are turning five, and some are still babies. Within that one unit are some of life’s greatest triumphs and some of life’s greatest tragedies. At one end of the ward, there are preemies nearly ready to go home, kicking, fussing, well on their way to the “terrible twos.” At the other end, a mother sits by her child’s bedside, keeping constant vigil over her newborn daughter and imagining how nice the kicking, the fussing, and the terrible twos will be. In the midst of all this, is Jane Cassidy, professor and chair of music education at LSU.
For the last 10 years, Cassidy has been conducting research at the hospital, studying the effects music has on premature infants. Her research has gone through several phases, examining the relationship between music and an infant’s oxygen-saturation levels, his or hers ability to feed, and the rate of head growth, all factors in determining whether or not an infant may go home. By the time she’s finished with her current study, Cassidy will have worked with 120 babies. Hers is the first in music therapy research to isolate and compare males to females. “There are two thoughts about stimulation,” Cassidy said. “Some feel a baby’s neurological development is not ready and that you should keep them in minimal stimulus, i.e. soft clothes, blinders over eyes. Others feel some stimulation is important. If they were in utero, they would be getting some sort of stimulation. If they’re kept without any, their synapses may not develop properly.” The hardest part of the research starts at the beginning Once an infant is born prematurely, Cassidy has the unenviable
task of talking to the parents about her research and the possibilities
music has to help their child recover quicker. Some agree, eager
to help their child in anyway they can. Others do it simply because
they would like their babies to have something as soothing as a
lullaby or one of Beethoven’s piano sonatas playing in their
isolet. For 17 days, Cassidy will work with these infants. Her tools are deceptively simple. Two tiny speakers go into the isolet and are attached to a Sony Car Ready Walkman. The music is soft and soothing. If there are any vocals involved, they will be female, as prior studies have shown that babies recognize the female voice and are more comforted by it. “We know that babies recognize the female voice, and we know that tempo has an effect, as faster music provides more stimulation,” Cassidy said. “All of the music I use is unfamiliar. It’s not something the mother would have sung while they were in the womb. Looking specifically at music therapy, people need to know that it is not detrimental. The vast majority of evidence supports that in small doses and at low volumes, babies do quite well with it.” In the first study, which focused on oxygen-saturation levels, or the amount of oxygen in the blood, Cassidy found that music actually caused the levels to increase. Many of the infants are placed on oxygen to help keep the saturation levels between 92 percent and 98 percent. Cassidy found that with the aid of music, babies needed less oxygen. When the music played, their levels increased. Anxiety, a major cause of poor saturation, is suspected to have decreased, allowing the oxygen to be turned down.
The next study involved music’s role in helping the babies feed on their own. For premature infants, eating is a stressful time. Using a pacifier that contained a pressure-sensitive computer chip behind the nipple, Cassidy sought to determine the effects of music on this activity. The computer chip senses a change in air-pressure which activates the CD player. In other words, once the baby begins to suck, the music plays. But the question was, would the babies figure this out? “Within minutes, in this controlled environment, the babies set to suck harder and harder,” Cassidy said. “By sucking, they could turn on the music. And soon they figured out that when the music went off, they had to suck on the pacifier.” In her current study, Cassidy is comparing the decibel levels of music in the isolet using lullaby music and Mozart’s string music, and what effects, if any, one has over the other. She is also looking at whether or not brain growth is affected by music. The reason for examining this is that head growth is a factor in whether or not a baby is able to go home. Cassidy will measure the infant’s head a week before they’re exposed to the music, the first day they’re exposed, the last day and a week after the study is completed. It’s a wonderful combination, Cassidy admits, of music and science coming together. It’s also a rare and relatively new one. But in this place, this area of tragedies and triumphs, of what-might-be’s and what-might-have-been’s, the possibilities are endless. Contact Josh Duplechain |
LSU University Relations Related Links School of Music |
