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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2018 Nov 3;18(1):435.
doi: 10.1186/s12884-018-2069-6.

Effects of music intervention during caesarean delivery on anxiety and stress of the mother a controlled, randomised study

Philip Hepp  1   2 , Carsten Hagenbeck  3 , Julius Gilles  3 , Oliver T Wolf  4 , Wolfram Goertz  5 , Wolfgang Janni  6 , Percy Balan  3 , Markus Fleisch  7 , Tanja Fehm  3 , Nora K Schaal  8
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effects of music intervention during caesarean delivery on anxiety and stress of the mother a controlled, randomised study

Philip Hepp et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

Background: Stress and anxiety during pregnancy and childbirth have negative consequences for both mother and child. There are indications that music has a positive effect in this situation. The present study investigates the influence of music during the caesarean on anxiety and stress of the expectant mother.

Methods: The SAMBA study is a single-centre, controlled, randomized study including 304 patients. Women in the intervention group heard music via loudspeakers from one of four self-selected genres. The control group had standard treatment without music. The caesarean was performed in regional Anesthesia. At admission, at skin incision, during skin suture and two hours after completion of surgery, different subjective (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, visual analogue scale for anxiety) and objective parameters (salivary cortisol/amylase, heart rate, blood pressure) were collected. Mixed-factorial Analysis of variances as well as independent sample t-tests were applied for data analysis.

Results: At skin suture, significantly lower anxiety levels were reported in the intervention group regarding State anxiety (31.56 vs. 34.41; p = .004) and visual analogue scale for anxiety (1.27 vs. 1.76; p = .018). Two hours after surgery, the measured visual analogue scale for anxiety score in the intervention group was still significantly lower (0.69 vs. 1.04; p = .018). The objective parameters showed significant differences between the groups in salivary cortisol increase from admission to skin suture (12.29 vs. 16.61 nmol/L; p = .043), as well as systolic blood pressure (130.11 vs. 136.19 mmHg; p = .002) and heart rate (88.40 vs. 92.57/min; p = .049) at skin incision.

Conclusions: Music during caesarean is an easy implementable and effective way of reducing stress and anxiety of the expectant mother.

Trial registration: German registry for clinical trials ( DRKS00007840 ). Registered 16/06/2015. Retrospectively registered.

Keywords: Anxiety; Caesarean; Music intervention; Stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the Medical Department of the Heinrich-Heine-University in Dusseldorf (No.: 3625). The research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration. All patients gave their written consent.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

All authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

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

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of the study with details of the obtained data for each measurement time point
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Participant flow chart
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The subjective course of anxiety for both groups. a For the STAI-state scores the music group displayed significantly lower anxiety levels at skin suture than the control group. b For the VAS-A scores anxiety levels of the music group are significantly below the control group at skin suture and remain lower two hours after the caesarean. * p < .05
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Objective Measures. a The increase of salivary cortisol from admission to skin suture is significantly higher in the control group than the music group. b The music group show significantly lower systolic blood pressure at skin incision. c Heart rate is significantly lower in the music group than the control group at skin incision
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