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Music for Mother and Child

Summary of a report on the effect of specially composed music on fetuses, infants, toddlers and parents

“We were just visited by a couple and their 8 months-old girl. At one point during the evening she was restless and distressed. I put on the CD “Tales of the Ocean” from the CD series “Music for Mother & Child”, and she began to listen, and calmed down with her mother. After a short time she was asleep – and my unborn child “danced” in my womb.” (Ann, mother-to-be)

Background and objective

In the summer of 1999 the two musicians and composers, Claus D Jensen and Henrik Birk Aaboe, produced the CD series Music for Mother & Child, which contains music specially composed and designed to calm fetuses, infants, toddlers and parents. In the course of the process henrik and Claus received such exciting responses from people that they decided to undertake a private study of the effect of the music on pregnant women, infants and their parents.

They wanted to study the direct effect on fetus/infant, as well as the indirect effect: whether the music could calm down the parents, and whether the tranquillity of the parents could positively affect or be imparted to the fetus/child.

In addition to studying how the music affected the participants in the study, they wanted information on how often and when the music was used and for how long at a time. The participants were given the CDs and a questionnaire in the form of a checklist with space for supplementary comments.  Read more...