Music therapy-assisted labor and delivery

Author(s): McCorkle, R. R., Williams, S. B.

Journal/Book: Journal of Music Therapy. 1981; Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. National Association for Music Therapy 8455 Colesville Rd., Suite 930 20910 Silver Spring, Maryland USA. journal article.

Abstract: This article describes a new clinical music therapy program for application in labor and delivery and presents results of a preliminary study to evaluate effectiveness of the treatment. An experimental group of 13 patients participated in 6 individual predelivery music therapy training sessions during the third trimester of pregnancy. Experimental patients listened to preselected musical works throughout labor and dlivery with the music therapist in attendance. A control group of 7 subjects participated acoording to regular hospital routines. Data consisted of patients' responses to questionnaire items reflecting subjective perceptions and recollections of the labor/delivery experience and reports of frequencu and duration of home practice. Experimental subjects achieved significantly higher "success" scores than did controls on 5 of 7 indices (p< .05). A moderate correlation between music home practice and successful childbirth outcome was demonstrated with frequency/length of music home practice revealed as a significant predictor of success in the childbirth experience.

Keyword(s): music-therapy, labor, delivery, childbirth, obstetrics.

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