Sedigheh Montaseri1*, Zeynab Zarei2, Mitra Edraki3, Shahnaz Pourarian4, Saeedeh Pour Ahmad 5
Introduction: Mother breast milk is the best food for newborns, especially premature infants. Breast milk in mothers of premature infants has a higher amount of nutrients and energy than the breast milk in mothers of a full-term infant. Promoting breastfeeding is a simple and useful strategy to reduce infant mortality around the world. One of the common problems of mothers, especially mothers of premature infants, is the stress caused by milk deficiency. Many methods have been used to increase the breast milk of mothers. Since the non-pharmacological methods used to increase mother's milk are more simple and accessible, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of music therapy on the secretion of breast milk in premature infants. Materials and methods: This clinical trial study was conducted in two stages of 4 days on 35 mothers of newborns between 28 and 34 weeks after birth who were admitted to the intensive care unit. In the first stage, mothers for 4 consecutive days expressed the breast milk using breast milk pump every day while listening to instrumental music (15 minutes before milk expression and 15 minutes along with milk expression) and its quantity was measured in milliliters in two shifts in the morning and in the afternoon. After completion of the first stage, the same mothers in the second stage expressed their milk in 4 other consecutive days for 15 minutes in the morning and in the afternoon without listening to music and just by considering standard nursing care (quiet environment, appropriate room temperature, and comfortable chair). As in the first stage, the milk was measured in milliliters. Findings:The study data are analyzed using SPSS software (version 24). The result of the study shows that the average amount of secreted milk in the stage of music therapy is significantly higher than the non-music therapy stage. There is a statistically significant difference between these two stages (p = 0.005). Conclusion: Music therapy is an easy and accessible non-pharmacological approach that can increase the milk secretion of mothers of premature infants. This method can be used in the restroom of mothers who have a newborn infant in the intensive care unit.
