By Sajib Mannan

 

Ricky Jane, a 30 year old stay-at-home mom, recently gave birth to her second child. Her first child was born prematurely at 28 weeks gestation.  Doctors took the baby to the NICU right away, where the baby stayed for 4 weeks. Later on, her child faced difficulties with hearing and she consulted a doctor. The doctor informed her that her child’s auditory cortex wasn’t developed well. She asked the doctor what could have caused the problem, and the doctor told her that it develops during childhood, in the early days of life and even starting during pregnancy.

The different sounds a baby hears early on has a large impact on the development of the auditory cortex. Hearing normal sounds like the mother’s voice, helps babies develop their auditory system. This is particularly important for premature babies who are already underdeveloped at birth and who may live for weeks or months in the NICU outside of a natural environment for babies.  Learning of Jane’s baby’s long stay in NICU, the doctor stated that this could be the reason behind his inability to hear effectively. Because the baby frequently heard hospital noises rather than more natural sounds, his auditory power was less developed.

After giving birth, moms often chat and coo with their babies. But when babies arrive prematurely, they’re taken to the NICU, where they largely hear hospital sounds. New research has shown that listening frequently to a mother’s voice enhances preemies’ brain development.

Amir Lahav, an assistant professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, conducted the research along with his colleagues. The study followed two groups of newborns who were born between 25 and 32 weeks of gestation. One group of 19 babies heard only hospital noises. The other group of babies spent their time in normal surrounding where they heard their mothers’ heartbeats, voices singing ‘’Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’’ and reading ‘’Good Night Moon,’’ and their mother speaking to them in “motherese” for three hours a day. Then they measured the size of the auditory cortex and corpus callosums in their brains.

The babies who heard “motherese” had more developed auditory cortexes than the babies who heard only hospital noises. The auditory cortex transports and processes auditory information in human brain. This research confirmed that proper development of the auditory cortex is highly dependent upon the sounds heard in early life.

What this means is that parents with babies in the NICU should be encouraged to spend more time talking to their babies, perhaps even being coached on the best tone and pace for speaking to their baby.   It’s not always easy to know what to say to a baby, so parents can be told to bring books or sing songs to make it easier.  Some NICUs also have strict visiting hours that limit when or how frequently parents can visit their babies.  While structure is important for NICUs to run effectively and efficiently, it is critical that parents have as much opportunity as possible to spend time with their babies and provide comfort, healing and stimulation with their voices.  Many NICUs are beginning to adopt family-centered care programs to address this need, and hopefully, it’s just a matter of time before many other NICUs follow suit.  Getting parents involved in their babies’ care and development early on can go a long way towards ensuring these babies not only eventually come home, but that they thrive throughout childhood and beyond.