Listening to music while pregnant can provide various benefits for pregnant women. In addition to relieving anxiety, listening to music also makes pregnant women more relaxed and calm during pregnancy.
The strains of rhythm in music are known to affect the thoughts and moods of everyone who listens to it, including pregnant women. Hormonal changes experienced by pregnant women during pregnancy cause various complaints, including anxiety and unstable moods.
There is also an assumption that listening to music while pregnant is good for fetal development. In fact, it is not uncommon for people to think that certain types of music can make the fetus smarter in the future.
However, until now, experts have not been able to prove that playing music to the fetus can make it smarter. However, listening to music while pregnant can provide various benefits for pregnant women.
Benefits of Listening to Music While Pregnant
There are several benefits of listening to music while pregnant that pregnant women can get, namely:
1. Relieves stress and anxiety
Pregnancy often causes stress and anxiety, especially for women who are pregnant for the first time. Stress can increase the risk of premature birth and low birth weight.
Not only that, stress or even depression felt by pregnant women can also have an impact on the baby at birth, such as increasing the child's risk of developing ADHD and even having an impact on cognitive development.
Listening to music can be a solution for pregnant women to deal with stress during pregnancy. Studies reveal that listening to music with a slow and gentle rhythm can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression in pregnant women.
2. Overcome complaints of difficulty sleeping
The combination of rhythm and lyrics in music can make the body and mind of pregnant women more relaxed. A study revealed that pregnant women who listened to music for 4 consecutive weeks had better sleep quality than those who did not listen to music at all.
The study proves that music can overcome complaints of difficulty sleeping experienced by pregnant women.
3. Maintain stable blood pressure
The relaxing effect produced when listening to music makes pregnant women's blood pressure more stable. This effect can also prevent pregnant women from pregnancy complications that can occur due to high blood pressure and one of them is preeclampsia.
If not treated immediately, preeclampsia can develop into eclampsia which is dangerous and can cause death, both for the mother and the fetus.
4. Relieve pain during pregnancy
In addition to stabilizing blood pressure, the relaxing effect of listening to music can also relieve pain that often occurs during pregnancy, from back pain, stomach pain, to headaches.
This can happen because the body will naturally produce endorphins or natural pain relievers, including when you listen to music you like.
5. Stimulate the fetus
Not only for pregnant women, listening to music while pregnant also provides benefits for the fetus. Entering the third trimester of pregnancy, the ability to hear the fetus is known to have developed.
Experts believe that the fetus can receive sensory information which will then be remembered at a certain level. In addition to the mother's heartbeat, breathing, and the sound of blood flowing through the mother's body, the fetus can also hear sounds from outside the mother's body, including music, and respond to them with movement or kicks.
This relaxing effect also applies when music is played to a newborn. Some babies will react by stopping crying, opening their eyes, or making a few movements.
This is what makes the baby can recognize and feel comfortable when he hears the sound again after he is born.
Things to Pay Attention to When Listening to Music to the Fetus
The fetus is heard a song at the end of pregnancy, it can react by moving its body. This confirms the possibility of the fetus being able to hear in the stomach.
However, this does not prove that exposure to music in the womb can improve the ability of the auditory system or brain development after the baby is born. In addition, not only classical music, but all music is good for the fetus to listen to.
It is not uncommon for pregnant women to try to stimulate music by sticking headphones to his stomach. However, it is feared that it can overstimulate the fetus, especially if the volume is too high. When you want to play music to the fetus, just play the music on the music player.
The recommended volume of voice is about 50–60 decibels or no more than 65 decibels, which is the volume of a normal voice when speaking. If you listen to music for a longer time, the recommended volume is below 50 decibels.
Several studies have revealed that loud noises that are played on the fetus for a long time can actually trigger premature birth, low birth weight, and hearing loss in babies after birth.
Although it has not been proven to increase baby's intelligence, playing music to your baby can help him get to know and interact with you.
If you still have questions about the benefits of listening to music while pregnant or about other pregnancies, you can ask during a routine pregnancy check with your doctor. Also use the chat feature in the ALODOKTER application to consult a doctor.
