Premature Triadic Music Therapy (PT-MT) for babies and their parents: a pilot study

Objective: We aim to test the feasibility and effectiveness of Premature Triadic Music Therapy (PT-MT) in the premature baby unit. Methods: The design was a clinical pre-test-post-test trial with a convenience sample. Inclusion criteria were a gestational age higher than 28 weeks for preterm infants and the absence of shock or extreme distress for parents. Six preterm children (with a gestational age of 33 to 36 weeks) and their parents participated in the study. For the children, we measured heart rate, blood perfusion, and blood saturation at three different times (pre-PT-MT, during PT-MT, after PT-MT) as quantitative indicators of distress. Their parents completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) before and after the PT-MT intervention. Results: We found a statistically significant lower heart rate and a marginally statistically significant higher blood perfusion during PT-MT, as compared to the baseline. However, these changes were not present at the end of PT-MT. The parents' EPDS scores were not statistically significantly lower at the post-test, although, the Medians of the scores did decrease. Conclusions: PT-MT is a promising intervention for the reduction of distress in both parents and children. Further studies should include a higher number of sessions and participants