Att spela trumma för sitt ofödda barn

Abstract

This text focuses on the mother-to-be’s drumming for her unborn child. Drumming is something most of the people have tried in one or another context, but to drum for ones unborn child is something few have experienced. The drum has a long tradition as therapeutic medium as well as a powerful force within its original culture. Today, more and more researchers use the drum to improve and facilitate psychological and physical health (Friedman 2000). For me, as a percussionist and music therapist, it’s been natural to focus on drums within music therapy. During the work with my Master study, I worked with drums encountering pregnant women. One of the findings was that the mother-to-be experienced that “the child became a person” during drumming (Bovin de Labbé 2010). She felt a deep connection to her unborn child that made way for making contact with the child outside the music therapy setting. By tying results from the Master thesis with prenatal research, my own experiences with pregnancy and birth, and the use of the drum in music therapy, I try to find out whether the mother’s drumming for her child may be significant for his or her health. To get closer to an answer, I subsequently deal with the theoretical reasoning facing empirical experience. My question is whether it is possible to come closer to the unborn child through focusing on less material aspects during pregnancy, i.e. aspects besides the question of whether or not the organs function as they should (Schei 2009) and that the child grows normally.