Musical care in infancy

Musical care in infancy, as construed here, encompasses two broad realms, natural and targeted musical care for infants and their caregivers. Natural musical care refers to the everyday use of music in interactions with infants, reinforcing cultural practices that accommodate infant nurture and development, caregiver well-being, and the parent–infant relationship. Targeted musical care draws on educational and clinical approaches to create musical interventions and music therapy practices aimed at optimizing well-being in special or vulnerable populations. Findings from several disciplines—including developmental psychology, ethnomusicology, music therapy, perinatal mental health, and paediatrics—enrich our understanding of musical care in infancy. This chapter begins by considering infants’ capacity for musical engagement, which provides the foundation for musical care interventions in special circumstances. The chapter proceeds to describe mothers’ (or primary caregivers’) intuitive singing and musical care rituals, highlighting natural musical care in Western and non-Western cultures. Subsequently, the chapter focuses on research and practice in musical care interventions and music therapy, or targeted musical care. The chapter considers the role of musical care in supporting maternal and infant well-being in situations involving maternal anxiety and depression, infants with disabilities, and prematurely born infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Finally, the chapter suggests future directions for research and practice, including an exploration of musical care with other caregivers (e.g., fathers and grandparents), development of more interdisciplinary and evidence-based interventions for infants with special needs, and the potential for musical care in support of infants and caregivers from marginalized or seldom-heard communities.