Music therapy-assisted labor and delivery.

This article describes a new clinical music therapy program for application in the labor and delivery setting, and presents results of a preliminary study to evaluate effectiveness of the treatment. Over 50 women participated in the project; however, inclusion of patients in the data collection portion of the project was limited by criteria designed to minimize the effects of spurious variables. An experimental group of 13 patients participated in six individual predelivery music therapy training sessions during the third trimester of pregnancy. Experimental patients listened to preselected musical works throughout labor and delivery, with the music therapist in attendance. A control group of seven subjects participated in labor and delivery according to regular hospital routines. Data consisted of patients' responses to questionnaire items reflecting subjective perceptions and recollections of the labor/delivery experience and reports of frequency and duration of home practice. Experimental subjects achieved significantly higher "success" scores than did control subjects on five of seven indices (p less than .05). A moderate correlation between music home practice and successful childbirth outcome was demonstrated, with frequency/length of music home practice revealed as a significant predictor of success in the childbirth experience.