Listen to music while cleaning? Apparently. by making love? It’s much better. While jogging? Turn up the volume! But listening to music during childbirth? The right pieces can play an important role in managing stress and even pain, assure those who guide moms through this transformative moment in their lives.
Posted at 7:00 am
It is stronger than them, it overwhelms them. Émilie Perreault’s eyes fog up every time the crystalline tones of Alexandra Stréliski’s Prelude ring out. Normal: It was this music that filled the room and his heart when his son joined us eight years ago. “Well, the truth is, he might not have come out during this play,” says the host, laughing. “When you’re pushing, you pay a little less attention to what’s being played. But she was on my reading list, that’s for sure. »
Creating a list of songs they want to hear in the moments leading up to the arrival of their new loved one is one of the responsibilities that doula-midwife Julie Amic places on the women she accompanies starting in the third trimester. . Music, she says, plays a “huge role” in managing the stress and pain that comes with childbirth.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Julie Amic, doula and perinatal care assistant
But it has to be songs that pick you up emotionally, that bring you back to a place within you that calms you down, to a state that is synonymous with happiness.
Julia Amic
Therefore, to bring this state of fullness to your reading list, it can be useful and above all pleasant to rotate it in the sweet moments that punctuate pregnancy, such as: B. when setting up the baby room. “The more the music is connected to memories of love, the doula, who is a mother herself, points out, the more the music will have the power to bring the mother back to that sense of appeasement. »
Alexandra Stréliski’s debut album, Pianoscope, rocked Émilie Perreault throughout her pregnancy. “It is clear to me that music should be part of the overall concept of health,” argues the author of the essay Essential Service (Cardinal Editions). “Music won’t replace epidural, we agree, but it can put you in a good mood and help you feel on familiar ground. »
Like the ocean
The effect that the soundtrack of this unforgettable day can have therefore depends on the previous relationship that connects a woman with the songs that compose her. “If music has allowed us to access that state of openness, letting go, in other areas of our daily lives, if it helps us inhabit our body instead of thinking, it can potentially bring us back during childbirth,” says Mélanie Martin, Professor at the Department of Midwifery at the University of Québec in Trois-Rivières.
Although most mothers choose quiet songs, the midwife has already witnessed a birth that took place to the sound of sharp rock guitars and another in which the father played his djembe.
The music must reflect something familiar in order for it to contribute to the woman’s feelings in its full capacity.
Professor Melanie Martin
It’s these familiar tunes and sounds that have the greatest potential to promote life-saving endorphin release. “In the game of hormones that are present during birth,” explains the professor, “adrenaline is an endorphin antagonist. Once the adrenaline is there, the contractions become more painful and everything starts rolling.”
For this reason, Julie Amic usually advises her clients, without making it an absolute rule, to avoid music that is too rhythmic. If faster-pulsing songs invite movement, and if movement can promote certain stages of labour, they are less likely to reach the trance-like state that she tries to lead women into.
The same observation for the songs, in which the text takes a dominant place. “The woman needs to detach herself from her analytical brain,” says the one who also suggests using meditative music or guided meditations. “I often compare contractions to waves: you have to go with the rhythm of the ocean when you move your pelvis. »
The cocoon of happiness
Aside from the role it plays for the mother, music can also add to the emotional richness of childbirth, a moment that is already very busy in this regard. Julie Amic will always remember this newborn, who spent her first few seconds in life to the tune of Haley Reinhart’s piano voiced version of Can’t Help Falling in Love, a staple of the playlists she puts together for these occasions. “I like to say that babies choose the song they want to be born. »
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Host Emilie Perreault
“A hospital room is so cold that it’s difficult to create a bubble to help you cope with the pain,” notes Émilie Perreault, in whose home the music made it possible to install that atmosphere and what even more surprising is the relaxing anesthetist, who had shown up at his bedside with a big day on his body and face.
It was a strange moment because whoever gave me an injection was more stressed than me, but he said to me, “We’re so fine here, I would spend the day in this room.” The music had a numbing effect on the anesthesiologists had effect.
Emily Perreault
Julie Amic confirms that music is generally well received by medical staff. “Beyond the soundtrack, I invite mothers to use lights, photos of their other children, or the ultrasound to create an atmosphere that reminds them why they are going through all this. The idea is to forget that you are in a hospital room and reinforce that feeling of a little cocoon of happiness. »