Mums Using Music (MuM)-Community: A music for pregnancy wellbeing programme

MuM-Community is a five-week in-person programme that was offered to women who were between 18 and 35 weeks pregnant. In weekly workshops facilitated by a music therapist and a HSE midwife, women learned how to use music for relaxation and connecting with their unborn baby, while also being guided on how to use music to support childbirth and early parenting. 

According to the HSE, as many as one in five women in Ireland will experience mental health problems during pregnancy, with the World Health Organisation estimating that perinatal anxiety and depression affects one to 10 women in high-income countries and one in five in low- and middle-income countries.    MuM-Community responds to this by promoting perinatal mental health. 

Northside Family Resource Centre, Ballynanty, Limerick

We have delivered the programme and now evaluating it in terms of enablers, barriers and outcomes for participating women. This is through use of scales (maternal-foetal bonding, social connection, maternal wellbeing) and also through a focus group with participants and semi-structured interviews with facilitators and NFRC staff.