Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Effect of maternal voice on proportion of oral feeding in preterm infants

Journal of Perinatology volume 43, pages 68–73 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To determine the impact of maternal voice exposure on oral feeding in preterm infants.

Study design

Prospective, unblinded, 2-center intervention study of infants born 28 0/7–34 6/7 weeks gestation. Infants were exposed twice daily to maternal voice for 20 min before attempting oral feeding. Feedings were divided into groups consisting of Baseline, Intervention, and Follow-up feeds. The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05181020).

Result

29/37 (78%) mother-infant dyads consented for the study. 25 infants with 2051 feedings were included. Compared to the preceding Baseline, Intervention feeds were associated with an adjusted 7.1 percentage-point increase in oral intake (p = 0.036) and in post-hoc analysis a 71% increased likelihood of having the highest feeding readiness score (p = 0.003).

Conclusion

Exposure to maternal voice prior to enteral feeding is feasible and was associated with significantly improved oral feeding proportions in preterm infants.

Clinical trial registry

clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05181020).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: 3-Level hierarchical structure of data.
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Pickler RH, Best AM, Reyna BA, Wetzel PA, Gutcher GR. Prediction of feeding performance in preterm infants. Newborn Infant Nurs Rev. 2005;5:116–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Caskey M, Stephens B, Tucker R, Vohr B. Adult talk in the NICU with preterm infants and developmental outcomes. Pediatrics. 2014;133:e578–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Scala M, Seo S, Lee-Park J, McClure C, Scala M, Palafoutas JJ, et al. Effect of reading to preterm infants on measures of cardiorespiratory stability in the neonatal intensive care unit. J Perinatol. 2018;38:1536–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Doheny L, Hurwitz S, Insoft R, Ringer S, Lahav A. Exposure to biological maternal sounds improves cardiorespiratory regulation in extremely preterm infants. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2012;25:1591–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Krueger C, Parker L, Chiu S-H, Theriaque D. Maternal voice and short-term outcomes in preterm infants. Dev Psychobiol. 2010;52:205–12.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Webb AR, Heller HT, Benson CB, Lahav A. Mother’s voice and heartbeat sounds elicit auditory plasticity in the human brain before full gestation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2015;112:3152–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Chorna OD, Slaughter JC, Wang L, Stark AR, Maitre NL. A pacifier-activated music player with mother’s voice improves oral feeding in preterm infants. Pediatrics. 2014;133:462–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Shellhaas RA, Burns JW, Barks JDE, Hassan F, Chervin RD. Maternal voice and infant sleep in the neonatal intensive care unit. Pediatrics 2019;144:e20190288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Griffith T, Rankin K, White-Traut R. The Relationship Between Behavioral States and Oral Feeding Efficiency in Preterm Infants. Adv Neonatal Care. 2017;17:E12–E19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. The jamovi project. jamovi. (Version 1.2) [Computer Software]. Retrieved from https://www.jamovi.org. 2020.

  11. R Core Team. R: A Language and environment for statistical computing. (Version 3.6) [Computer software]. Retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/. 2019.

  12. Gallucci M. GAMLj: General analyses for linear models. [jamovi module]. Retrieved from https://gamlj.github.io/. 2019.

  13. Barnett A, van der Pols J, Dobson A. Regression to the mean: What it is and how to deal with it. Int J Epidemiol. 2005;34:215–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Marsh H, Hau K. Multilevel modeling of longitudinal growth and change: Substantive effects or regression toward the mean artifacts? Multivar Behav Res. 2002;37:245–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Bapat R, Gulati IK, Jadcherla S. Impact of SIMPLE feeding quality improvement strategies on aerodigestive milestones and feeding outcomes in BPD infants. Hosp Pediatr. 2019;9:859–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Ludwig SM, Waitzman KA. Changing feeding documentation to reflect infant-driven feeding practice. Newborn Infant Nurs Rev. 2007;7:155–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Pinelli J, Symington A. Non-nutritive sucking for promoting physiologic stability and nutrition in preterm infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2005;4:CD001071.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Kirsch I, Lynn SJ, Vigorito M, Miller RR. The role of cognition in classical and operant conditioning. J Clin Psychol. 2004;60:369–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Sullivan RM, Taborsky-Barba S, Mendoza R, Itano A, Leon M, Cotman CW, et al. Olfactory classical conditioning in neonates. Pediatrics. 1991;87:511–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Loewy J, Stewart K, Dassler AM, Telsey A, Homel P. The effects of music therapy on vital signs, feeding, and sleep in premature infants. Pediatrics. 2013;131:902–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Feldman R. Parent-infant synchrony and the construction of shared timing; Physiological precursors, developmental outcomes, and risk conditions. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2007;48:329–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Saliba S, Esseily R, Filippa M, Gratier M, Grandjean D. Changes in the vocal qualities of mothers and fathers are related to preterm infant’s behavioural states. Acta Paediatr. 2020;109:2271–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Caskey M, Stephens B, Tucker R, Vohr B. Importance of parent talk on the development of preterm infant vocalizations. Pediatrics. 2011;128:910–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neonatology, Connecticut Children’s, Hartford, CT, USA

    Aditya Chhikara, James I. Hagadorn & Shabnam Lainwala

  2. Department of Pediatrics, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT, USA

    James I. Hagadorn & Shabnam Lainwala

Authors
  1. Aditya Chhikara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. James I. Hagadorn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shabnam Lainwala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

AC—Conceptualized and designed the study, contributed to acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data, and drafted and revised the manuscript. JIH—Performed the statistical analysis and interpreted the data and drafted and revised the manuscript. SL—Conceptualized and designed the study, contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the data, and drafted and revised the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shabnam Lainwala.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chhikara, A., Hagadorn, J.I. & Lainwala, S. Effect of maternal voice on proportion of oral feeding in preterm infants. J Perinatol 43, 68–73 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-022-01493-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-022-01493-4

Search

Advanced search

Quick links