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A few months ago I attended a fascinating seminar called 'Music as a complementary therapy for mother and baby care' at the annual Pregnancy Help conference.  The seminar was presented by the dynamic Australian Cherie Ross who began her research into music therapy for pregnant women and babies in the early 1990s.

When Cherie first began her research the CD 'Transitions' was available on the market.  This CD was comprised of synthetic, computer generated womb sounds with an overlay of an artificial female voice.  However, what Cherie felt is that natural sounds must surely be better for mother and baby than artificial computer generated sounds.  Therefore, she set out to record womb sounds at different stages of pregnancy.

It is well known that the maternal presence is essential for proper growth and development of the foetus.  The maternal 'lullaby' consists of the sound of the heartbeat, the 'wooshing' of blood through the placenta and digestive noises.  The ear is one of the first organs to develop and the foetus has auditory capabilities as early as 24 weeks.  The foetus associates the rhythmic womb sounds with comfort, security and a stress-free environment.  The premature infant, on the other hand, is introduced into a very stressful, artificial environment lacking natural rhythm and the mother's sound, smell and touch.

When Cherie took her womb recordings to sound engineers to analyse, without telling them what it was, they informed her that the recordings were what is known as 'pink noise' which comprise every frequency possible.  The recording were also mid range and showed nice broad even 'sine waves' as opposed to the quite sharp, jagged peaks and troughs of the 'Transitions' CD.  Apparently the engineers were very curious to know the source of the recordings as it is impossible to artificially create 'pink noise' - Cherie told them "it is the sound of life!"

Now began Cherie's in-depth investigation into how to best reproduce these sounds.  Previous research had shown the role of the heartbeat in relation between mother and infant.  It was found that babies who are exposed to the mother's heartbeat gained significantly more weight than babies who were deprived of their mother's heartbeat.  This was presumably due to the exposed babies crying less and hence using fewer calories.  Research also found that a mother's instinctive behaviour is to hold her baby on her left side.  This left side preference was more noticeable when there had been no separation between mother and infant as opposed to prolonged separation.

The important components of musical compositions are rhythm, tempo, mood, instruments and melody.  The human heart beat in deep sleep is about 50-60 beats per minute and is a slow tempo which brings about a sense of calm.  Rhythm is the heart of all music.  Cherie found that 4/4 rhythms such as nursery rhymes (and marching and rock 'n roll) have a beginning and an end and entice action (such as tapping a hand or foot), whereas 3/4 rhythms, such as traditional lullabies (and waltz) are continuous, repeat back on themselves and entice swaying (it also mimics the human heart beat).

The mood of music is determined by the key in which it is arranged.  The major keys are generally positive, whereas the minor keys are usually melancholy.  Middle C and F are the average range of the female voice.  Research has shown that newborns have a 100% preference for their mother's voice, an 80% preference for their father's voice and a 0% preference for the obstetrician's voice.  Studies have also shown that the key C relates to the heart and the key F to the mind, resulting in deep relaxation.

Instruments are the voice of music.  Traditional instruments which produce sound by natural means are the most soothing.  The instruments that Cherie chose were the flute, string and harp as these most closely resemble the flowing and percussive sounds experienced within the womb.  The flute represents the flowing, 'wooshing' of the blood through the placenta, the harp represents the percussive digestive noises and the strings represent the warmth and fluidity of the internal environment.  The sounds of the external world are portrayed by the melody of the flute as this is the instrument closest to the female voice.

Cherie worked two jobs in order to raise sufficient money to pay musicians from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to play her 'Music for Dreaming'.  No vocals were used in the 'Music for Dreaming' recordings as babies are most responsive to their parent's voices and singing is quite complex and stimulating (although Cherie encourages humming along to the lullabies to enhance their soothing quality).  The 'Music for Dreaming' CDs are designed as one continuous piece for a constant calming effect and they last for about one hour which is a complete sleep cycle (when asleep the auditory system is still operating) and they are produced to be played softly (i.e. with no instrument dropout).

The benefits of Cherie's 'Music for Dreaming' CDs include; increased pain threshold, masking extraneous noises, non threatening and non invasive, initiates communication (e.g. singing and stroking, i.e. bonding), normality and control in a foreign environment, reduced anxiety in mother and baby, and portability of recorded music (e.g. hospital to home).

Scientific research indicates that there are three major methods of calming and settling babies; physical contact, rhythmic motion and soothing sounds.  Visual stimulation is best for a quiet and alert infant, e.g., eye-to-eye contact.  Tactile stimulation is best for an active and alert infant, e.g., rocking or skin-to-skin (such as head to toe stroking at 12 per minute), and auditory stimulation is best for a drowsy infant, e.g., parents voices (at less than 50 words per minute) and classical music.

When my husband and I had our first child we were given a copy of the CD 'Transitions' from a friend and we found that it helped enormously to sooth and keep us calm during the long evenings of a crying newborn.  We have had Cherie's 'Music for Dreaming' CDs for a number of years now and I often have them playing during the day as soothing background music for myself and my daughters and for when visitors turn up.  I can highly recommend them as they are so pleasant to listen to that you never get sick of hearing them repeated over and over.

Published in Birthplace Magazine, March/April 2006, p 24-25.