Music is powerful. As much as for what one Nanyin addition to putting a baby to sleep, be able to noticeably calm your pain levels. This is the conclusion of a study recently published in Pediatric Researchin which one of these melodies is used, composed by Mozartto alleviate the discomfort of a group of babies who were going to perform the heel test.
This test is used a few days after babies are born. It consists of extracting a small blood sample through a heel stick. The blood is then tested for evidence of Metabolic diseasessuch as phenylketonuria or galactosemia. It is a very simple intervention, but babies are very sensitive patients, who logically suffer from the puncture.
For this reason, the authors of the study, coming from a New York Medical Center, decided to try the effects of a lullaby to calm the pain. Obviously, babies cannot explain whether the sensation is more or less painful, but there are scales to quantify pain in patients this young, so they were able to reach some very interesting conclusions.
babies and pain
It is not the same to prick the heel of a newborn baby than that of an adult. This, beyond small and vulnerable that we see them, has a simple explanation. And it is that, when we are born, we have a greater number of pain receptors, known as nociceptors.
In addition, one of the systems that our own body uses to control pain, known as descending inhibitory system, is very immature at the time of birth. Therefore, the pain signals are much more intense, even with something as simple as a prick in the heel.
The effects of lullabies to calm the pain
100 babies participated in this study., with a mean age of 2 days. They all underwent the same test, but previously They were divided into two groups. Those who were to be part of the first group listened to a Mozart lullaby for 20 minutes, before and during the puncture, and also five minutes afterwards. In contrast, those in the second group were not made to listen to any type of music.
The second part of the study consisted of evaluating their pain levels in a scale from 0 to 7based on facial expressions, crying intensity, breathing patterns, limb movement, and alertness.
Thus, they found a very clear difference between the two groups. The pain scores of the babies who heard the lullaby were 4 during the heel stick, 0 one minute after the procedure, and 0 two minutes later. In contrast, the pain scores of those who did not listen to the lullaby were 7, 5.5, and 2, respectively.
pain was also assessed three minutes later, but there were no differences there. What is clear is that the song relaxed them so much that as they listened to it, their pain levels plummeted.
What is this for?
There are already some measures that are taken to reduce the pain of babies without the need for drugs. For example, the test is usually done in quiet rooms, with little light and at room temperature, since some associated relaxation has also been observed.
In the case of music, it is not the first time that a relaxing effect in the her Many studies have been carried out in adults, in which melodies are used to improve sleep either even reduce anxiety before dental interventions.
Therefore, it was not unreasonable to think that a nanny could soothe pain in babies. Now, we have seen that, indeed, it is something that makes sense. More research will have to be done, and possibly carry out the same study with a larger number of babies. If the conclusions hold, it may be that, in the future, we will listen to lullabies in pediatric offices, but not exactly to put children to sleep.