Listening to music while cleaning? Obviously. By making love? It’s much better. While jogging? Turn up the volume! But listening to music while giving birth? The right pieces can play an important role in managing stress, even pain, assure those who accompany mothers in this transformative moment in their lives.
It’s stronger than her, it overwhelms her. Each time the crystalline notes of the Prelude by Alexandra Stréliski resonate, Émilie Perreault’s eyes mist up. Normal: it was this music that filled the room, and his heart, when his son arrived among us, eight years ago. “Well, the truth is that he may not have come out during this play,” says the host, laughing. “When you push, you are a little less attentive to what is playing. But she was on my reading list, that’s for sure. »
Drawing up a list of the songs they want to hear in the moments preceding the arrival of their new favorite person is one of the duties that doula and perinatal nursing assistant Julie Amic submits to the women she accompanies, once the third trimester has begun. . Music, she says, plays a “huge role” in managing the stress and pain that go hand in hand with childbirth.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Julie Amic, doula and perinatal nursing 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.
Julie Amic
In order to imbue your reading list with this state of fullness, it can thus be useful, and above all pleasant, to rotate it during the sweet moments that punctuate a pregnancy, such as that of the arrangement of the baby’s room. “The more the music is associated with memories of love, underlines the doula, herself a mother, the more the music will have the power to bring the mother back to this feeling of appeasement. »
pianoscope, Alexandra Stréliski’s first album, rocked Émilie Perreault throughout her pregnancy. “For me, it is clear that music should be part of the overall concept of health”, pleads the author of the essay Essential service (Cardinal Editions). “Music is not going to replace the epidural, we agree, but it can put you in a good mood, help you feel in familiar territory. »
Like the ocean
The impact that the soundtrack of this unforgettable day can have would therefore be dependent on the prior relationship uniting a woman to the songs that compose her. “If in other spheres of our daily lives, music has allowed us to access this state of openness, to let go, if it helps us to inhabit our body, rather than to think, it can potentially bring back during childbirth,” says Mélanie Martin, professor in the midwifery department at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières.
Although most mothers select quiet songs, the midwife has already witnessed a birth that took place to the sound of sharp rock guitars and another during which the father played his djembe.
The music must resonate something known so that it can contribute to the woman feeling in her full capacity.
Professor Melanie Martin
It is these familiar melodies and sounds that will have the greatest potential to promote the life-saving release of endorphins. “In the game of hormones that are present during childbirth,” explains the professor, “adrenaline is an endorphin antagonist. As soon as there is adrenaline, the contractions become more painful and everything starts to roll square”.
This is why, without making it an absolute rule, Julie Amic usually suggests to her clients to avoid music that is too rhythmic. If songs with faster pulsations invite movement, and movement can promote certain stages of labor, they more rarely achieve the trance-like state towards which she tries to guide women.
Same observation for the songs in which the text occupies a dominating place. “The woman must disconnect from her analytical brain,” says the one who also suggests the use of meditative music or guided meditations. “I often compare contractions to waves: you have to go to the rhythm of the ocean when you move your pelvis. »
The cocoon of happiness
Beyond the role it plays for the mother, music can also heighten the emotional richness of childbirth, a moment that is already very busy in this regard. Julie Amic will always remember this newborn who lived his first seconds of life to the sound of Haley Reinhart’s piano-voice 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 for their birth. »
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Host Emilie Perreault
“A hospital room is so cold, it’s hard to create a bubble that will help you cope with the pain”, observes Émilie Perreault, in whose house the music had precisely made it possible to install this atmosphere. and, more surprisingly, to relax the anesthesiologist, who had shown up at his bedside with a big day in the body and in the face.
It was a strange moment, because whoever gave me an injection was more stressed than me, but he told me: “We are so good here, I would spend the day in this room.” The music had had a numbing effect on the anesthesiologist.
Emilie Perreault
Julie Amic confirms that music is generally well received by medical staff. “Beyond the soundtrack, I invite mums to create a vibes, with lights, photos of their other children or the ultrasound, which will remind them why they are going through all this. The idea is to forget that you are in a hospital room and amplify this feeling of a little cocoon of happiness. »