There is nothing that parents dread more than watching their newborns undergo blood tests. Just like us, babies feel pain too.
That said, blood tests are still an important process for ensuring newborns are healthy and free from any dangerous conditions that may endanger their lives.
However, doctors may have found a reliable and safe way of managing the pain newborns feel when they have to go ‘under the needle’ so to speak.
And the solution is simpler than it sounds.
Music.
Recent studies have found that sound can have therapeutic benefits against pain; a form of auditory analgesic if you will.
But not just any music, soothing, lullaby music, like the kind composed by the great musician, Mozart.
A recent study found that playing soothing lullaby music to newborns can help ease their pain when they get a blood test.
In the study, New York doctors examined the pain levels of 100 babies during a standard heel prick test (a common method when screening for conditions like jaundice).
In the study, half of the babies listened to soothing music for 20 minutes before, during, and for five minutes after the test. The other half didn’t.
The music they chose was titled Bedtime Mozart, played on repeat during the experiment.
Doctors measured pain levels by studying the newborns’ facial expressions, crying severity, breathing patterns, limb movements, and levels of alertness.
Babies who had undergone the music therapy was not only found to experience less pain during the blood test but after as well, which means that listening to lullabies also gave infants some temporary immunity to pain.
While this study is a groundbreaking discovery in the field of paediatric medicine, it is not a common practice in American hospitals, let alone in Malaysian ones.
But the next time your baby needs to get their bloodwork done, or get one of their many shots, play some soothing music for them before the dreaded doctor’s appointment.
And see for yourself the miraculous pain-killing power of music.
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