Bengaluru: If you are a fan of Grey’s Anatomy on TV, you have seen doctors performing surgery to music in operating theatres. But closer to home, at Vanivilas Hospital, to be specific, expectant mothers are being lulled into having easy deliveries to the sound of music.
The government-run hospital is providing prenatal music therapy to expectant mothers and even has a 'Music Therapy Room' where they can choose to listen to a range of music, from instrumental to old and new Kannada numbers, and devotional songs. "I have been listening to instrumental music for the past three months," says nine months pregnant, Farhana, who enrolled for the therapy a few months ago and has been advising others to go in for it too since. Asha, 24, says, "My mind feels completely relaxed and I can feel that my baby too is enjoying the music because there’s movement inside."
While pre-natal music therapy is not uncommon in other parts of the world, it is almost unheard of in India. "Research has shown that expectant mothers not only have healthy babies, but also shorter labour besides other miraculous benefits due to music therapy," says Dr Geetha Shivamurthy, professor , department of OBG, Vanivilas Hospital, who oversees it.
Dr Shruti Bhandari of the anaesthesia department ,who did a study under Dr Karuna Harsoor on the effects of the therapy, says patients who took it did not experience pain even a few hours after delivery unlike those who chose not to opt for it. "Patients who didn't go in for music therapy needed analgesics to deal with the post-operative pain," she says.
While last year some 1803 inpatients and 625 outpatients enjoyed the music therapy at the hospital, it says the demand for it is higher this year on account of how effective it is proving to be. Perhaps singing and not crying -with- pain mothers-to-be in delivery rooms is now the new tomorrow.
