Everyone knows that lullabies help babies sleep. But as a new study reveals they can also ease pain, Ivan Hewett explores why music has such a powerful effect on infants.
Since response to sound is one of the most highly developed abilities in the newborn infant, children need to be musically nurtured from birth. Staincliffe Maternity Hospital in England soothes new infants by playing recorded music of such composers as Brahms, Handel, and Mozart. The effect on the infants works wonders, hospital attendants say. In some hospitals, a program of lullaby music is piped into rooms where mothers are feeding their babies.
Lullabies from the greatest composers and spontaneous melodies sung and hummed by loving caregivers have brought comfort and sleep to countless babies. For generations, people throughout the world have sung lullabies to their babies as they cuddled them in their arms and gently rocked them to sleep.
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