Music-based therapies and interventions have been studied over the past decades and proven effective on physiological and psychological outcomes, including sucking, behaviour, stress reduction, neurodevelopment and promoting emotional bonding. However, not every neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) administers music-based interventions in their ward. Research in the realm of music-based therapies and interventions for neonates and their caregivers has lately accumulated, increasing the evidence of health benefits across a variety of NICU-related pathologies. To integrate health benefits into everyday clinical practice in the NICU, it is crucial to have trained and highly skilled music therapists to provide specialised music therapy to these vulnerable individuals in the most critical period of their brain development. This article will review the available and studied methods of music therapy in the context of a possible introduction to neonatal intensive care for clinical benefit.
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