The Listening
Therapy treats: Pregnant Women
Dr. A. Tomatis, French Physician,
Neurologist and E.N.T. Specialist has been a prolific
pioneer in the study of auditory processing and language
development for the past 45 years. He was also one of
the first to believe that babies can hear their mother’s
voice in the womb.
Babies perceive their mother's voice
from their fourth month of prenatal life. According
to Tomatis the nine months in the womb is a crucial
time not only for physiological development also for
psychological development. The perception of the mother's
voice is the very first bond of communication with the
world. The quality of this bond will deeply influence
our attitude toward life. Babies make 'one' with their
mother’s feelings and emotions, they feel every
muscular tension of the mother, they share the hormonal
secretions of the mother's emotions, and most of all
they are engulfed by their mother's voice via the bone
vibration. The mother's voice fills the baby with a
sense of well being and provides a huge amount of stimulation
to the brain and the nervous system. Indeed the function
of the ear is not limited to just hearing, the ears
give tremendous energy to the brain also controls the
posture and inducing a good verticality so that one
not only hears, but starts to listen properly.
Through his work, Dr. Tomatis has developed
a treatment which is simply based on listening to specific
sounds through an "Electronic Listening Device",
filtered accordingly to the individual need of the patient.
These sounds (Mozart and also Gregorian Chant tapes)
are filtered in such a way the cars are forced to listen
properly. This method has been successfully helping
women during their pregnancy in many centres of the
Listening Therapy network but also in two French hospitals
(Foch and Vesoul) The method helps not only to facilitate
an easier birth but also to improve the quality of the
pregnancy.
Pregnant women who experience the Listening
Therapy sessions feel extremely relaxed - and approach
the birth of their child with the same relaxed feeling.
It releases the back pains and gives them more energy
to cope. During the sessions themselves. mothers
experience a great exchange with their baby who responds
to the music.
The number of sessions varies between
60 and 90 (4 sessions per day i.e. 2 hours per day)
usually after the 5th month of pregnancy
A study has been done at the Vesoul
Hospital in France with 50 woman on the Listening Therapy
Treatment compared with 50 women with no preparation
whatsoever and a further 50 women on the traditional
method of preparation. The results were as follows:
|
Without
Preparation |
Traditional
Training |
Listening
Therapy |
Average time of labour |
4h.0m |
3h.30m |
2h.30m |
No. of Cesareans |
15% |
13% |
4% |
Spontaneous Delivery |
50% |
46% |
60% |
Babies also benefit from the sessions,
indeed they respond to their mother’s sense of
well being and to the improvement of their mother's
voice which becomes enriched in harmonics and modulations. "Tomatis
babies" are known to be more aware, alert and ‘toned-up'.
We are all aware of the importance
of these 9 months in the womb. The Listening Therapy
preparation provides the best chances to make every
birth a happy event and prepares future mothers to bring
their babies into the world in happiness and serenity
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