Maternal singing calms premature babies and their mothers

For preemies, the combination of hearing mother’s voice softly singing while being held against her skin can have a number of health benefits - and it helps mums too, a new study suggests.

When mothers in a neonatal intensive care unit sang while holding their pre-term infants in a skin-to-skin “kangaroo care” position, the babies’ heart rate improved compared to when they were held without singing. Mothers’ anxiety levels were found to have dropped as well.