The Effect of music on maternal anxiety and maternal and fetal heart rate during cardiotocography

Introduction: It is well known that music acts as an analgesic. Facilitates muscle relaxation, reduction of physical pain and mental tension. Purpose of this original investigation: study the effect of music on maternal anxiety during cardiotocography as well as its effect on embryonic cardiac function in relation to mother’s heart rate. Method and materials: The survey, conducted in external midwifery medical services of Alexandra’s Hospital, involved 80 pregnant women who met the criteria for participation. They were divided in two groups. The 40 pregnant women were the Musical Group, and the other 40 were the Control Group. In both groups, the STAI scale was used. The control group underwent cardiotocography examination without listening to music. The Musical Group were selected to hear the music track ‘Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascends’, a cover of the Piano Guys band. The hearing started 5 minutes before the end of the cardiotocography, with headset playing frequencies that are within the frequency spectrum of the music track and special music player, and 10 minutes before the end of the cardiotocography the pulse oximeter Beurer P080 was placed. In this music track we did music and frequency analysis with the following programs: SPAN of Voxeno and Reaper of Cocos, as well as Theory-Harmony of Music, to see if at the time certain changes in the track occur, there are corresponding changes in the heart rate of the mother and the fetus. Results: In our study we observed that music significantly decreased the level of anxiety of women subjected to non-stress test (NST) (Median anxiety score prior to the conduct of the non-stress test 53.38 (49-57) vs 25.20 (23-28) following the completion of the test. Moreover differences among women that heard music were significant compared to those that did not (25.20 (21-28) vs 56 (48-64)) despite the fact that baseline differences among the two groups were comparable (54.45 (59-67) vs 50.80 (53-58). Finally, following performance of music analysis we observed significant variations in the baseline heartbeat of pregnant women as well as in the cardiotocographic analysis of fetuses (number of accelerations, baseline rhythm); those patterns were directly related to musical characteristics of the track that women listened to. Conclusions: Music has a positive effect on pregnancy. It is a non-invasive way of anxiety relief, as well as a simple, non-time-consuming way of improving cardiotocography among low risk cases; thus, potentially diminishing false-positive results which may result in unnecessary deliveries.