Life vs. Digital Music Interventions Performed by Professionals Throughout Pregnancy to Increase Mental Health for Mothers and Their Offspring

Overview

This prospective study was preceded by an extensive feasibility study between 2021-2024. Thereby, pregnant women were exposed to live music and a variety of creative workshops such as vibration, modelling, creative writing, singing, dancing and active listening to concerts from 12 gestational weeks onwards up to delivery at two-week intervals. The investigators detected significant changes in affection detected by the PANAS-test, cortisol from buccal swabs, and maternal heart rate variability before and after the interventions. Similarly, the investigators could detect significant changes by validated questionnaires for maternal stress (PSS), maternal anxiety detected by STAI and the risk of depression detected by EPDS. Therefore, from January 2025 onwards, the investigators integrated "only" concerts and workshops in singing and dancing as relevant interventions. In a comparative prospective study, the investigators now want to study, whether the effects of life participation within the Philharmonic building at approximately 2-week intervals would have the same short-term and medium-term effects as in pregnant women following the same digitalized interventions from home (DIGITALIZED versus LIVE INTERVENTION = DL). This would offer the chance to reach pregnant women in regions with high needs for interventions to reduce stress during pregnancy, such as in areas involved in wars, environmental disasters or other stressful life conditions. The primary outcomes are short-term differences in affection measured immediately before and after all interventions, and differences in cortisol from buccal swabs, measured twice after concerts during pregnancy. The secondary outcomes are the medium-term changes throughout pregnancy in validated questionnaires of PSS, STAI and EPDS, the perinatal and neonatal outcomes such as development and tempoerament of the infants by validated questionnaires AGES and STAGES 6 and 12 months after birth and a follow-up of infants after two years by the Parca-R. questionnaire. In addition the gold MSI will be evaluated in both groups to test the affinity to music as well as the correlation with linguistic development by EEG of the newborns. Hypothesis: Both interventions lead to a rapid reduction in the psychological and physiological stress of pregnant women. The effects may be more pronounced with live music. A total of 128 women will be assigned to one of two groups. Taking into account a drop-out rate of 5-10% during the course of the study, the investigators expect to have complete data from 116 women (approximately 58 per group) to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Based on our previous studies on the reduction of psychological stress and cortisol levels by concert interventions showing significant changes in mean cortisol levels, the effect sizes of the intervention on site are estimated to be moderate: Assuming a moderate effect size (f = 0.25) and a β/α ratio = 4, N = 58 women per group and using 5 repeated measures are needed to detect differences between the two groups. Due to the fact that the life concerts and workshops had to be prepared by a professional team, the investigators could not perform a randomized controlled trial as orginally intended but hat to form the groups consecutively by recruitment from outpatient units in berlin and environment.