Singing and Maternal Mental Health
Participants: Dr Daisy Fancourt, Dr Rosie Perkins, Katherine Zeserson
Series: Creative Thinktanks
Ideas explored: music for health and wellbeing
This Creative Thinktank was co-created with researchers Dr. Daisy Fancourt and Dr. Rosie Perkins, built on their promising studies which, through combinations of a randomised controlled trial, qualitative enquiry and laboratory experiments, show that group singing can reduce symptoms of postnatal depression in new mothers.
Music and Motherhood was funded by Arts Council England from 2015-2017 to investigate the impact of creative activities on maternal wellbeing.
A video from the British Council‘s Serious Science series featuring Daisy Fancourt talking about how babies perceive sounds, and how this affects the mother-baby relationship.
Recommended reading
Fancourt-Perkins-Research-Paper-2018
https://performancescience.ac.uk/musicandmotherhood/
http://breatheahr.org/melodies-for-mums/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25773633
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/emily-tredget/can-loneliness-lead-to-po_b_17915756.html
http://www.londonscn.nhs.uk/networks/mental-health-dementia-neuroscience/mental
Attendees
Rosie Adediran
Lisa Cassidy
Nikki Crane
Daisy Fancourt
Cathy Green
Amy Mallett
Maddalena Miele
Helen Mottram
Tim Osborne
Rosie Perkins
Phillipa Reive
Claire Tustin
Rachel Whatmough
Tony Woods
Yvonne Wyroslawska
Katherine Zeserson
Publications arising from the project can be found here.
The event brought 16 leading researchers, singing practitioners, healthcare professionals and policy makers to Snape Bridge House to explore how singing can be used in supporting the mental health of new mothers, and how this valuable work might be developed in a wider context.
Actions/outcomes included: