Addison's Song
Why Read?
We found it very hard to connect with our daughter while in the NICU. The glass of the incubator, the machines and vents, the inabilty to feed or change our baby - this isn't how we envisioned the connection with our daughter[s] after she was born. We recieved a book - You are My Sunshine - early on in our stay, and we read that book to Audrey over, and over, and over again. It finally made us as parents feel that we were doing something for our daughter. We later discovered that reading to very premature infants aids in brain development and leads to better outcomes.
After Audrey's brain bleed, and subsequent Hydrocephalous, her brain was compressed so much that we could barely see the brain tissue on the MRI's for the first 3 months. Her prognosis was very poor - if she survived, she wouldn't walk, talk, or have much - if any - cognitive abilities. Audrey is thriving today, and surpassing all of the milestones that a non-preemie should. We contribute much of this to some divine intervention, but we also like to think that our interaction with her during her 5 month stay in the NICU had a positive impact on her development.
Below are a few articles which we found after the fact which speaks to the benefits of parents reading to thier young babies.
"There are many studies that show that maternal voices improve the outcome for that baby," says Littner, associate medical director of the NICU of Hillcrest Hospital, part of Cleveland Clinic. "Music and maternal voices and heartbeats make the babies more stable and decrease the length of stay. It should not be that hard to make small changes [in the NICU] that are important."
"This was the first study to evaluate a parent bookreading program with infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Parents felt reading to their infant positively affected their interaction with their infant. They noted that reading helped them achieve a greater sense of control and intimacy with their baby and helped foster a sense of normalcy in an overwhelmingly difficult situation."
"And if you ever find yourself with a baby in a special intensive care nursery, keep in mind that one of the simplest--and best--things you can do for your baby starts in the pages of a good book. "