NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pregnant women may relieve their stress and anxiety by simply enjoying some soothing music, a new study suggests.

When expecting women take, 30 minutes break for relaxing music each day, their stress and depression reduce dramatically, Taiwanese researchers said.

“Pregnancy is a unique and stressful period for many expectant mothers and they suffer anxiety and depression because of the long time period involved. Any intervention that reduces these problems is to be welcomed.” said Chen, National Cheng Kung University in Tainan.

Chen’s team divides 236 pregnant women in a music group and a group without music along with standard parental care. Women in the music group were free to enjoy music of their own choice for 30 minutes per day for two weeks; the music included classical, lullabies, nature sounds and children’s music.

At the start and end of the study, all pregnant women filled questionnaires on stress, anxiety and depression symptoms.

After completion, the researchers found that the women in the music group showed a significant improvement in all three symptoms, while stress, anxiety and depression scores remained virtually unchanged in the comparison group.

Music may provide “sensory input” that affects the nervous systems, which could pacify the physiological response to daily stress, according to Chen’s team.

Whatever is the mechanism, music may provide a simple, inexpensive and risk free way to control stress of pregnancy, researcher said.

“The value of music therapy is slowly being realized by nurses in a number of clinical settings,” Chen said, “and we hope that our findings will encourage healthcare professionals to consider it when treating pregnant women.”

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