A survey of how mothers think about and use voice with their hospitalized newborn infant

Short-term family-centered early intervention enhances a mother's capacity for attuned interaction with her hospitalized newborn infant which in turn impacts positively on infant neurodevelopment. This study determined the acceptability of a focus on mothers' own voices to support their hospitalized infant.Sixty mothers of newborn surgical inpatient infants were surveyed about spontaneous vocal behavior in the NICU. Questions included age, education and first experience of parenting, contextualization of voice use relative to other nurturing behaviors, and mother's capacity to imagine or think of a reason for singing to her infant.Sixty percent of mothers sang spontaneously in the NICU. There was strong evidence for an association (p < 0.001) between imagining singing or thinking of a reason for singing, and actually singing. There was no evidence for an association between mothers' spontaneous voice use and their age, education or experience of parenting, and musical heritage. Barriers to singing included being too embarrassed or feeling too obvious in the NICU environment.The snapshot of mothers' beliefs, thoughts and action in using their voices is valuable in creating an efficient family empowerment model.