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Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Published on: January 7, 2020
[MEDICAL CLOWNS: THE TRIPLE VALUE - CLOWN-PARENT-PREMATURE NEONATE]
Hagit Friedman1,2, Shay Barak3,4, Yelena Chulsky3,4
1The Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Department of Nursing, University of Haifa.
Insights
Medical clowns may improve parent-infant bonding in the NICU. This intervention uses humor to bridge the gap between parents and premature infants, potentially enhancing development and family connection.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal neuroscience and developmental psychology.
- Impact of early life experiences on brain development and parent-infant bonding.
Background:
- The infant's brain undergoes rapid development, with critical periods for sensory circuit formation.
- Premature birth and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stays pose risks to infant brain development and parental well-being.
- Parental stress and anxiety associated with preterm birth can negatively affect parent-infant bonding and family function.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the potential role and effectiveness of medical clowns in the NICU setting.
- To investigate the impact of medical clowns on parent-infant bonding and the development of premature infants.
- To establish a scientific basis for using medical clowns as an early intervention strategy in the NICU.
Main Methods:
- The study proposes a clinical model where medical clowns facilitate connection between parents and premature infants in the NICU.
- This model is based on a sensory-emotional common denominator and a shared language for clinical purposes.
- Research will utilize objective indexes to evaluate the effectiveness of medical clowns.
Main Results:
- No direct results are presented as this is a proposal for research.
- The abstract highlights the need for scientific evidence on the efficacy of medical clowns in the NICU.
- The proposed model suggests medical clowns can act as a bridge, linking the infant and their surrounding family.
Conclusions:
- Early intervention in the NICU is crucial for improving parental function and infant bonding.
- Medical clowns offer a novel approach to support families with premature infants.
- Further research is necessary to validate the benefits of medical clowns for parent-infant bonding and infant development.
Introduction:
The infant's brain develops rapidly during the prenatal and early postnatal period. Temporary new neural circuits appear, such as the sub-cortical plate (SCP). SCP links the thalamus and cortex in a time window of sensory circuits' intensive development, creating the basis for the infant's bonding interactions. SCP activity in premature neonates is vulnerable and hypoxic injury may have a long lasting influence on brain development. Preterm birth is an emotional trauma for the parents and may lead to depression, anxiety and stress. This has an impact on the family, effecting parents' function and adaption to their new role, and the development of deep emotional bonds with their infant. Parent-infant negative interaction in NICU or later may lead to non-functional parenthood, hence, early intervention in NICU is important and may improve parental function and bonding with the infant. Humor has positive effects on human physical and mental health. There has been a fast increase in the number of medical clowns in clinical departments, and research shows that the medical clown is effective in enhancing medical efficiency. However, as yet, there is no scientific evidence regarding medical clowns in the NICU. In the NICU, medical clowns create an imaginary triangle by connecting to the parents and their premature neonate, based on a sensory-emotional common denominator and a common language for clinical purposes. The medical clown's clinical model is based on five components related to the parents and the infant. These components serve as a human bridge linking the infant entourage/surrounding. Research based on objective indexes is necessary to evaluate the efficiency of medical clowns for parent-infant bonding and the significance of medical clowns for infant development.
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