A parent’s voice could be just what the doctor ordered to soothe newborns during their time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
New research led by Neonatal Trials Coordinator Dr Tara Crawford from the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network (SALHN), thanks to support from The Hospital Research Foundation Group, is exploring how parents’ voices may support the early development of preterm infants during their NICU stay.
Previous research has shown the calming effect a parent’s presence can have on a baby in those first weeks of life.
Dr Tara Crawford
“When parents speak to their infants, clinicians often observe a reduction in heart rate, indicating decreased stress,” Dr Crawford said.
“Emerging evidence also suggests that early exposure to language including the number of words and type of sounds an infant hears, plays a critical role in brain development, even during a NICU stay.”
However, parents are not always able to be at their baby’s bedside. To address this, the team is investigating whether recorded parental voices could provide similar developmental benefits.
Together with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, parents will be provided a selection of story books to record. These recordings will then be played for infants throughout their NICU admission.
“Parents’ voices are a powerful tool in calming their baby during times of discomfort, with beneficial physiological responses including reduced cortisol levels,” Dr Crawford explained.
“We hope this project will allow us to use parents’ voices as medicine.”
The team will follow up with infants at nine months corrected age to assess speech and language development outcomes.
Dr Crawford hopes the findings will help inform best practice in NICU care, by offering a simple yet powerful way to support vulnerable infants and their families.
This research has only been made possible thanks to the caring donations of our supporters – thank you!
