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The Chicago Tribune released an article expressing the importance of music in the NICU. Full-term infants are able to recognize their mother's voice at birth, so fostering this connection is important to infants that spend their last few months of gestation outside of the womb.
Joanne Loewy, the director of the Mount Sinai Health System's Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine in New York, states that music therapy essentially begin in the womb. "The first drummer you ever hear is your mother's heart. You hear the 'whoosh' sounds of the womb," said Loewy. Music therapy sessions incorporating these elements - a simple, predictable rhythm, periodic lulls and the familiar sound of mom's voice - can stabilize a baby's heart beat and breathing, as well as aid in sleep and encourage "quiet" alert time.
Joanne Loewy, the director of the Mount Sinai Health System's Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine in New York, states that music therapy essentially begin in the womb. "The first drummer you ever hear is your mother's heart. You hear the 'whoosh' sounds of the womb," said Loewy. Music therapy sessions incorporating these elements - a simple, predictable rhythm, periodic lulls and the familiar sound of mom's voice - can stabilize a baby's heart beat and breathing, as well as aid in sleep and encourage "quiet" alert time.