Premature triadic music therapy (PT-MT) for babies and their parents: A pilot study.

Objective: This pilot study aims to test the feasibility and effectiveness of Premature Triadic Music Therapy (PT-MT), which is an adaptation of Haslbeck’s Creative Music Therapy and Loewy’s Rhythm, Breath and Lullaby method to the triad (i.e., child, mother, and father) in the pre-term birth department. Methods: The design of the study was a clinical pre-post-test trial with a convenient sample. Music therapist contacted all the parents of children recovered in the neonatology ward. Inclusion criteria were a gestational age higher than 28 weeks for preterm infants and the absence of shock or extreme distress states for parents. Six preterm children (with a gestational age from 33 to 36 weeks) and their parents participated to the study. For children, as distress’ quantitative indicators, we measured heart rate, blood perfusion, and blood saturation at three times (pre-PT-MT, during PT-MT, after PT-MT). Parents filled instead the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at two times (pre- PT-MT and post- PT-MT). Results: Through Wilcoxon tests, Mann-Whitney tests and Kendall’s tau correlations, we found a statistically significant lower heart rate and a marginally statistically significant higher blood perfusion during PT-MT (as compared to the baseline), even if these changes are not maintained at the end of PT-MT. Concerning parents, EPDS scores are not statistically significant lower at the post-test; though, the Medians show a decrease of the scores. Conclusions: PT-MT is a promising intervention for the reduction of distress in both parents and children. Though, further studies are needed to address this topic, possibly including a higher number of sessions and participants.