How it Works
How Heartbeat Lullabies Work
Familiar songs. A real human heartbeat.
Heartbeat Lullabies pairs traditional nursery songs with the steady rhythm of a real human heart. All 28 songs were recorded with an actual heartbeat as the beat. The arrangements are simple on purpose, so the rhythm and the warmth of the voices stay in front.
Just press play. Play the recordings at naptime, bedtime, or during a fussy stretch. There’s nothing to set up and nothing to learn.
Why a Heartbeat Is Comforting
Before a baby hears a single voice, they hear a heartbeat. In the womb, that steady rhythm is constant, and it’s one of the first sounds a baby knows.
A heartbeat is also slow, even, and predictable. For a baby who is tired, overwhelmed, or frightened, that kind of sound can be easy to settle into. Pairing it with songs that parents and caregivers already recognize gives the ear something familiar to hold on to.
What the research shows. In a study of 272 premature infants in 11 neonatal intensive care units, babies’ heart rates dropped by one or two beats per minute on average while they listened to a lullaby or heartbeat-like sounds, and sucking rates sped up with the heartbeat sounds. The study was published in Pediatrics in 2013. [1]
Our Results
In hospitals. When the recordings were first tried in a hospital newborn nursery, nurses reported that most crying babies calmed and fell asleep in under two minutes. In a cardiac intensive care unit, nurses played the lullabies for infants and children recovering from heart surgery, and shared what they saw.
In care settings everywhere. Heartbeat Lullabies have been played in thousands of hospitals, special care facilities, and treatment centers, and in millions of homes.
For new parents. Military family programs, health departments, hospitals, and child abuse prevention organizations have shared more than 1.5 million copies with parents, as a comforting tool for the hardest moments with a crying baby.
In their own words. Parents, nurses, social workers, and doctors have sent in more than 35,000 written testimonies.
Free for Care Providers
Medical professionals can request free downloads or CDs to play for infants and children in their hospital or special care center. Contact terry@audiotherapy.com.
*Arranged and performed by Grammy-nominated songwriter and musician Brandon Barnes, using his own heartbeat as the rhythm.
Source
- Loewy et al., “The Effects of Music Therapy on Vital Signs, Feeding, and Sleep in Premature Infants,” Pediatrics, 2013;131(5):902-18: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23589814/