Maternal voice reduces pain in premature babies: study

Geneva [Switzerland], Aug 30 (ANI): A new study has shown that a mother’s voice during painful medical intervention for her prematurely born baby decreases the baby’s expression of pain. The results of the study were published in the journal “Scientific Reports”. A baby born prematurely often needs to be separated from its parents and placed in an intensive care incubator. For several weeks, he will undergo routine medical procedures that can be painful, without being relieved by too many pharmaceutical analgesics, which are risky for his development. So how to act for the good of the baby?

A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the Parini hospital in Italy and the University of Valle d’Aosta, observed that when the mother spoke to her baby during the medical intervention, the signs of the level of oxytocin – the hormone involved in attachment and also linked to stress – has increased significantly, which may indicate better pain management. These results demonstrate the importance of parental presence for premature babies, who are under intense stress from birth, a presence that has a real impact on their well-being and development.

From their birth before 37 weeks of gestation, premature babies are separated from their parents and placed in an incubator, often in intensive care. They must undergo daily medical interventions, necessary for their survival (intubation, blood sampling, feeding tube, etc.), which have potential impacts on their development and pain management. The difficulty? It is not always possible to relieve them with pharmaceutical pain relievers, as the short and long-term side effects on their neurodevelopment can be significant. There are other ways to relieve the baby, such as wraps, restraints, sugary solutions, or non-nutritious sucking with a pacifier. However, for several years, studies have shown that the presence of a mother or a father has a real calming effect on the child, in particular through the emotional modulations of the voice.

This is why the team of Didier Grandjean, full professor at the Psychology Section of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (FPSE) and at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (CISA) at UNIGE, is interested in the early voice contact between the mother and the premature baby, in the impact of the mother’s voice on the management of pain resulting from the routine practices necessary for the follow-up of the babies, and in the psychological and cerebral mechanisms that would be involved . To test this hypothesis, scientists followed 20 premature babies at Parini Hospital in Italy and asked the mother to be present during the daily blood test, which is done by extracting a few drops of blood from the heel.

“We focused this study on the maternal voice because in the first days of life it is more difficult for the father to be present, due to the working conditions which do not always allow days of rest”, explains Dr. Manuela Filippa, researcher at Didier Grandjean hospital. group and first author of the study.

The study was carried out in three phases over three days, allowing a comparison: a first injection was given without the mother’s presence, a second with the mother talking to the baby and a third with the mother singing to the baby.

The order of these conditions has changed randomly. “For the study, the mother began to speak or sing five minutes before the injection, during the injection and after the intervention”, explained the Geneva researcher.

“We also measured the intensity of the voice, so that it covers the surrounding noise, as intensive care units are often noisy due to ventilation and other medical devices,” she added.

First, the research team observed whether the baby’s pain decreased in the presence of the mother. To do this, they used the Preterm Infant Pain Profile (PIPP), which establishes a coding grid between 0 and 21 for facial expressions and physiological parameters (heartbeat, oxygenation) attesting to the painful sensations of the baby.

“In order to code the behavior of premature babies, we filmed each blood test and judged the videos ‘blind’, by trained staff, without sound, so as not to know whether the mother was present or not,” he said. survey Didier Grandjean.

The results are significant: the PIPP is 4.5 when the mother is away and drops to 3 when the mother is talking to her baby.

“When the mother sings, the PIPP is 3.8. This difference with the spoken voice is explained by the fact that the mother adapts her vocal intonations less to what she perceives in her baby when she sings because she is in a way constrained by the melodic structure, which is not not the case when she speaks “, underlined the Geneva professor.

Scientists then looked at what changes in the baby when he hears his mother speak.

“We quickly turned to oxytocin, the so-called attachment hormone, which previous studies have already linked to stress, separation of attachment figures and pain,” explained Dr Manuela. Filippa.

Using a painless saliva sample before the mother spoke or sang and after the heel prick, the research team found that oxytocin levels fell from 0.8 picograms per milliliter to 1.4 when the mother was talking. “In terms of oxytocin, this is a significant increase,” she said.

These results show the positive impact of the mother’s presence when premature babies undergo painful medical procedures.

“Here we are demonstrating the importance of bringing parents and children closer together, especially in the delicate context of intensive care,” said Manuela Filippa.

“In addition, parents play a protective role here and can act and feel involved to help their child perform at their best, which strengthens the essential attachment bonds that are taken for granted during a term delivery,” concludes Didier Grandjean.