“I couldn’t just lift him out, he had various monitors and oxygen – I felt… quite useless, but then when I started singing I felt very useful. It was a game-changer when it came to soothing.”
A parent reflecting on music therapy in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
The neonatal intensive care unit is a world filled with machines, alarms, and uncertainty. For parents, the inability to hold or comfort their baby can feel overwhelming. Music therapy offers a lifeline, a way to connect, soothe, and nurture when physical touch isn’t possible.
This pilot project, funded by The Music Therapy Charity, explored how music therapy could support babies, parents, and staff in a neonatal intensive care setting. Led by l music therapists, the study aimed to understand experiences, identify benefits, and discover what might be needed to make this service sustainable.
Over 13 months, therapists worked alongside families and staff, offering tailored musical interactions. The research combined surveys, follow-up conversations, and informal feedback during “Tuning In” sessions to capture experiences as fully as possible.
Parents reported reduced anxiety and a renewed sense of confidence and closeness. For babies, music therapy supported physiological stability, sensory regulation, and early communication. Staff also noticed a calmer, more compassionate atmosphere on the ward, as well as greater parental engagement in other therapies.
Building on these findings, we plan to create a video resource to help parents use voice and song confidently in the NICU. The research has also secured an extension of funding for music therapy on the unit, meaning more families can benefit from this approach.
This work is shaping future research and practice, including a National Institute for Health Research funding application for NICUSong, a study focused on collaborative songwriting with parents.
We are deeply grateful to The Music Therapy Charity for funding this vital research, helping us continue to grow the evidence that will shape NICU music therapy for the future. This work matters to families finding hope in the hardest moments and to wider communities as together we seek to nurture the earliest foundations of wellbeing and attachment.
Emma Kenrick is a Senior Music Therapist at Chelsea and Westminster Child Development Service NHS trust working across paediatrics and neonatal care. She is also a joint founder and co-ordinator of the Neonatal Network for the British Association for Music Therapy
Claire Flower is Consultant Music Therapist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, where she jointly leads the music therapy team based in Community Paediatrics. She is also on the Developing Research Leaders Programme for Allied Health Professionals, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.