Music therapists help babies leave the NICU sooner

Music therapists at Saint Joseph Medical Center are helping babies leave nearly 12 days sooner.

"Music therapy is using music to achieve nonmusical goals," therapist Dianne Sawyer said. "There are a lot of studies that show it can help the babies clinically and neurologically.

"Clinically, it helps their oxygen, their brain levels and respiratory rates. The sooner they can stabilize, the sooner their body can do what it needs to do for their age. When they were in the womb, they were protected. Now that they're out, we supplement those opportunities with music.

From a neurological perspective, the therapy is designed to set them up to develop skills like speech.

"The goal is to get them home sooner and there have been studies completed that show infants can go home up to 12 days earlier," Sawyer said.