Music therapy for preterm infants and their parents during NICU stay and beyond: current recommendations for clinical practice in Poland

There is preliminary evidence that music therapy plays a beneficial role for preterm infants and their primary caregivers during the neonatal period; however, available research considers mostly cohorts from North and South Americas, Australia, Israel and certain western European countries, excluding Poland. Remembering that music, and therefore music therapy, is highly culturally dependent, there is no “perfect program package” that can be directly applied across all communities to achieve desired effects everywhere. The commencement of the multi-center international randomized controlled trial, Longitudinal Study of music Therapy’s Effectiveness for Premature (LongSTEP) infants and their caregivers, has provided the impetus for Polish music therapists to begin offering music therapy services in neonatal intensive care units as a part of clinical research. Since research on music therapy dedicated to premature babies and their families is only beginning to emerge in Poland, there is a call to develop a culturally and contextbased approach that can be implemented in Polish neonatal settings. The objective of this perspective article is to present recommendations for clinical practice with premature babies and their families based on available international research and practical guidelines, as well as national experiences from the LongSTEP trial that make it culturally appropriate. This paper might be of great interest to readers interested in implementing music therapy interventions with local conditions and opportunities to improve outcomes for a “real-world” impact.