Did you know that aside from putting your babies to sleep, lullabies are also effective at easing their pain? According to a new study by Ivan Hewett, music certainly has power over infants, so get your diaphragm ready to belt out some sweet lullabies.
What Different Studies Show About Lullabies
Even if you feel like you don’t have the best singing voice in the world, make an effort to sing lullabies to your child. This could also be the reason why moms seem to have the instinct to sing to their babies since the beginning of time.
A London hospital conducted research on kids under the age of three and who are about to get heart transplants. One group was read to, one was sung lullabies, and another one was not read or sung to. The group that listened to lullabies showed lower heart rate and pain levels.
According to Professor David Hargreaves of the University of Roehampton and one of the researchers, his study shows that music is indeed powerful on children and that pain can be reduced with the use of music and the help of music therapists.
This study also shows just how strong a mother’s instinct is, hence the natural singing, even before it was proven just how beneficial it is to sing lullabies to kids. It seems natural for them to start humming or singing whenever their child shows signs of crying, discomfort or pain.
Studies also show that lullabies give off a soothing effect on the baby’s consciousness, especially if they are matched with a swaying rhythm and the baby is placed close to the mother’s body, listening to her heartbeat. The repeated melody can instantly give babies the comfort that they need.
Lullabies also provide the same effect as being rocked in a cradle, or being strapped to a walking mother. If your baby has grown fussy, you can do these activities too, aside from singing lullabies.
Other studies show that the mother’s voice in itself already has a calming effect, as well as certain combinations of consonants and vowels.
Other Benefits
Lullabies are not only powerful enough to give your child physiological relief when they are in pain. It also gives other benefits, including the following:
- Lulling the baby to sleep. Music affects the baby’s brain, with soft music stimulating the brain to release relaxing alpha waves.
- Providing the Mozart effect. This theory proposes that people who listened to lullabies as children enjoy improved intellectual capacity. This effect is said to be even stronger on babies who listened to soft music in the womb, since lullabies are thought to improve neural connections in the brain.
- Promoting language development. Most lullabies have repetition, rhymes, and assonance. Babies learn words more easily when they hear those words repeatedly and in rhymes.
- Promoting listening skills. When babies go to sleep listening to lullabies, it trains babies to listen more.
- Helping in mother-child bonding. To sing lullabies to your baby, you have to sit close to them, rocking them even. These factors help promote the bonding between the mother and the child.
Famous Lullabies
Some of the lullabies recommended by parenting magazine Parents.com include:
- Brahm’s Lullaby
- Rock-a-Bye Baby
- Hush Little Baby
- Over the Rainbow
- When You Wish Upon A Star
- Are You Sleeping
- Golden Slumbers
- Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
- Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
- Danny Boy
- All the Pretty Horses
- Little Boy Blue
Now, get your vocal chords ready to sing some of the sweetest lullabies in the world to your precious baby.
