Studying the Influence of Exposure to Maternal Voice on Oral Feeding Volumes in Preterm Infants

Overview

Oral feeding is one of the primary functions of the neonatal brain. In preterm infant population, competency at oral feeding is one of the major milestones in preparation for discharge. Mother's voices have been shown to have a net stimulatory effect and premature infants have been found to have increased cardiorespiratory stability after listening to mother's voices. Main objective of this study is to determine if it is possible to expose preterm infant in a systematic manner to mother's voices before their feeds and to determine if this exposure results in an increase in their oral intake.

Achievement of full oral feedings is directly associated with length of neonatal intensive care unit stay. Extremely low gestational age infants with dysfunctional oral feeding in early childhood have lower cognitive and language skills compared with those with normal oral feedings. Also, previous studies have shown a strong association between oral feeding and infant maturity and behavior state and positive feeding experience. In recent years, there is emerging evidence that non-medical developmental care interventions in the neonatal intensive care units such as kangaroo care, single family rooms, and music and massage therapy may be beneficial for preterm infants and improve their long term neurodevelopmental outcomes. Beneficial effects of exposure to mother's voice and sounds on preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care units are well documented. Our study proposes to examine the association between exposure to mother's voice prior to and during oral feeding and oral feeding volume and rate in preterm infants.