Integrating Special Populations Pilot Award
By Kelly Hale, Communications Coordinator
Feb 06, 2024
PI: Michelle Redmond, Ph.D., M.S. (KU Medical Center – Wichita), Co-Investigators: Rebecca Lepping, Ph.D. (KU Medical Center), Deanna Hanson-Abromeit, Ph.D., MT-BC (KU – Lawrence); Community Partner: Dr. Michelle Vann, Sistahs Can We Talk
Project Title: Exploring Life Course and Everyday Stressors in the Lives of Pregnant and Postpartum Women: The Role of Music Therapy as an Intervention Tool
Michelle Redmond, Ph.D., M.S., has always had an interest in women’s health and specifically looking at adverse health outcomes and how to improve them. As part of her research, she has been looking at how stress can impact women, especially African American women, and how stress, including discrimination stress, can cause negative birth outcomes.
And with literature in the public domain about music helping alleviate stress in some people, Redmond is collaborating with Rebecca Lepping, Ph.D., and Deanna Hanson-Abromeit, Ph.D., MT-B, to study whether music can help stress during pregnancy. The three met at a Kansas Birth Equity Network meeting and began looking for ways they could collaborate.
As part of the study, the team will conduct semi-structured interviews to get the women’s thoughts on whether they have considered music to help alleviate stress, the type of music they would listen to, and if they think music could be a good intervention for them while they are pregnant.
The study aims to see what role music could play in alleviating stress and if it could be beneficial to pregnant women and postpartum women.
“The literature that we’ve reviewed leads us to believe there is a role music can play,” Redmond said. “We’re really grateful and thankful to Frontiers for providing us this funding for our research.”
Once the data is analyzed, the team plans to apply for larger grants to continue their research.
(photo left to right: Redmond, Hanson-Abromeit, Lepping)