Kyle StockmanProfessor

Sara Jacobson

English 110

17 September 2019

The Effects of Music Therapy on Postpartum Depression

One in 9 mothers suffer from postpartum depression. For most the “baby blues” subside after 3-5 days, but in rare more extreme cases the depression and anxiety can last for weeks, months and even years. Practices such as psychotherapy, medication, and Electroshock Therapy (ECT) are the most common treatments for postpartum depression but many experimental therapies are becoming more prevalent. One of the most intriguing additions to the list is music therapy. Studies conducted using music therapy measure subjects feelings of anxiety and depression with and without listening to or performing music on a consistent basis.

In a website post, Stephanie Bolton a licensed music therapist examines the benefits of and reasons for choosing music therapy to treat postpartum depression. Her post includes information regarding the positive results attributed to music therapy such as “enhanced interpersonal relationships” and “successful and safe emotional release” (Bolton 1). Her audience is people who are browsing the web searching for alternative or additional treatments for their depression. This is evident because all of the information she gives is regarding “a combination of treatments” and “outcomes for depression that are documented in music therapy research” (2). Bolton writes with a reassuring and informative tone by including phrases such as “I’m happy to answer your questions” and “Feel free to contact me” (2). Her purpose in writing this website entry is to inform her audience and to make them aware of the service she is providing. She frequently utilizes lists to convey the wide breadth of knowledge she has.  The genre of the piece is part list and part informative article. Boltons entire website is very accessible, albeit slightly informal. The medium of the writing is through a website. Boltons stance on the topic of music therapy is passionate and persuasive. She lists a slew of “opportunities” that music therapy creates for a mother suffering from postpartum depression (2). She includes such examples as “express oneself both verbally and non-verbally”,  “develop coping and relaxation skills”, and “interact socially with others” (3). It is clear from these phrases that she is passionate about music therapy. The language she uses is quite informal as she is trying to appeal to the more human side of her audience. She uses relatable words such as “I”, “me”, and “everyone” (1). This type of language is used to create a more personal connection with her audience. For someone who is struggling with depression, Bolton gives very persuasive reasons to try music therapy.

The next source examined was a magazine article about a study from The Journal of Affective Disorders, titled “Effect of music therapy during vaginal delivery on postpartum pain relief and mental health.” There were six total authors of the article and study, Serap Simavli, Ikbal Kaygusuz, Ilknur Gumus, Betul Usluogullari, Melahat Yildirim, and Hasan Kafali. There are so many authors credited because this is a research report based on a study. The audience of this journal is people in the scientific community who are either educating themselves on this topic or browsing the magazine in which it was written. The audience is so specific because this particular publication is very niche. The tone is matter of fact yet convincing. Many facts from the study are cited, which adds substantial credibility to the conclusion of the article. The conclusion provides the extremely persuasive diagnosis that music therapy can be clinically recommended as an “alternative”, “safe”, “easy”, and “enjoyable” method for treating postpartum depression” (Simavli et al. 198). The purpose of the article is to inform the audience on the results of a specific study. The genre of the piece is a magazine article. This is clear because its format and language. The article employs sections with titles such as “Introduction”, “Results”, and “Discussion” (194-198), like many other scientific magazines do. In addition the authors utilize many short paragraphs covering a wide expanse of information. The medium is through an online database. The stance of the article is matter of fact and conclusive. The authors state many pieces of evidence that back up their claim and come to a conclusive decision. They include facts about the depression levels of the control group vs the music therapy group such as that the therapy groups levels were “25.4% and the control groups was 30.0%” (197). The language of the journal is extremely formal and scientific. Words such as “demographic”, “characteristics”, and “antenatal depression rates” (197) are utilized frequently throughout the article.  It includes many correlations and allusions to different ideas that remind the reader to think critically. 

The next source being examined is a newspaper article from Women’s Health Weekly. There. In the article, titled “Researchers’ Work from Royal College of Music Focuses on Postpartum Depression (Learning To Facilitate Arts-in-health Programmes: a Case Study of Musicians Facilitating Creative Interventions for Mothers With Symptoms of Postnatal Depression), the effects of “facilitating creative interventions” with women who have postnatal depression are documented (Perkins et al. 261). The audience of this article would be people in a scientific community. This is not the type of article that would appeal to the general public. The tone of the article is concise and informative. It is a very short article that details research performed in an experiment. Phrases like “journalists obtained” and “research concluded” give the impression that this was a thorough and well informed study and article (261). The purpose of the article is to inform readers and summarize an extensive study conducted by the Royal College of Music. It is effective in doing so by employing a well organized, concise summary of the study using eloquently written sentences that hold a lot of information. Phrases such as “However, the impact of” and “Key challenges included” (261) help the reader understand more nuanced information.  The genre of the piece is a newspaper article. This is evident in its straight forward, short makeup. Its medium is through an online database. The author’s stance is neutral, yet to the point. They give only evidence which can be cited from the study, using phrases such as “analysis revealed”, and “educational and support implications” (261). The language used is extremely formal and concise. The author does an exquisitely good job of using only the most necessary, non-redundant pieces of information to effectively summarize the study and educate the reader.

The last piece of text that was analyzed was a scholarly study titled “Shall We Dance? Music As a Port Of Entrance To Maternal-Infant Intersubjectivity In A Context Of Postnatal Depression”, by Martine Van Puyvelde, Helena Rodrigues, Gerrit Loots, Lotta De Coster, Kevin  Du Ville, Liesbeth Matthijs, David Simcock, and Nathalie Pattyn. The study is an extremely dense collection of information. It goes into great detail defining minute differences in maternal-infant subjectivity affected by exposure to harmonic tones and dancing. One pitfall of the study that becomes fairly obvious, and is acknowledged in the conclusion, is the fact that the study group was much too minuscule to make any generalized assumptions based on the results of the study. The audience of this study is once again the scientific community. Language such as “dynamic vitality”, and “recurrent structure” as well as subject matter make the study almost completely inaccessible to the general public (Van Puyvelde et al. 224). This is a very scholarly and advanced presentation of a study. The tone is informative, concise, and explanatory. Many words such as “generalization”, “consequently”, and  “relationship” are used throughout the study to help build and understanding of the subject  matter and convey every piece of important information so that the audience could make proper connections (224-232). The genre of this piece is a scientific study. The study is presented in sections labeled such descriptors as “Method”, “Procedure”, and “Results” (222-226) which differs from other genres.  The medium is through an online database. The authors’ stance on the topic is neutral, yet hopeful that music therapy will become more widely recognized. In the conclusion they state that they hope the research they have presented “inspires other clinical practitioners and offers new insights” (230)  Every piece of information included in the study is a proven result. They use extremely formal language and many scientific terms such as “confidence interval”, “duration of dyadic ISM’s” and “tonal synchrony” (225-232). This type of language is geared toward scholarly, well educated people.

The four sources that were examined had some similarities and some differences. Most of the similarities can be attributed to the subject matter. Music therapy’s effect on postpartum depression is a quite scientific proposition which will naturally lead to quite scientific findings. For three of the four sources examined, there were over three authors credited with contributing. This is most likely because the sources, barring the website, cited or were scientific studies with multiple authors. The audience differed for three of the four sources. The website had by far the largest audience, as it was the most accessible. The magazine article and newspaper article both had slightly smaller, more niche audiences. The scholarly study had the smallest most precise audience. This can be attributed to the type of language and medium of the sources, respectively. The tones of the magazine, newspaper, and scholarly source were all informative and matter of fact, whereas the tone of the website was much more laid back and personal. This difference in tone can be attributed to the different audiences each of the sources had.  All of the sources aimed to educate the reader with credible logic and evidence. Each gave cited evidence to support their claims and was effective in doing so.  The genres and mediums were naturally all different. This showed how scientific studies and ideas spread through different media outlets. The layout of each respective source conveyed the information that was given in a completely different way. The stance of three of the four sources was quite neutral, with the exception of the website which was very passionate and opinionated. This is understandable, as the three that were neutral came from much more science based communities. The language of the website was much more informal than that of the other three sources. This was done to create a more human connection between the author and her audience. The other three sources used fact based summaries and logic to convey their points.  Many parallels can be drawn between the different sources and their motives, although the way they accomplished their respective motives varied. This can be directly attributed to the subject matter as well as the intended audience of all of the sources. Each genre contains different techniques and language which are used in varying ways to convey ideas. The rhetorical elements surrounding these ideas create the rhetorical situation.

Works Cited

Bolton, Stephanie. “Music Therapy for Postpartum Depression.” Healing Sounds Music Therapy, Healing Sounds Music Therapy, 24 Jan. 2019, https://imageryandmusic.com/music-therapy-for-postpartum-depression/.

Simavli, Serap, et al. “Effect of Music Therapy during Vaginal Delivery on Postpartum Pain Relief and Mental Health.” Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 156, 2014, pp. 194–199., `doi:10.1016/j.jad.2013.12.027.

Puyvelde, Martine Van, et al. “Shall We Dance? Music As A Port Of Entrance To Maternal-Infant Intersubjectivity In A Context Of Postnatal Depression.” Infant Mental Health Journal, vol. 35, no. 3, May 2014, pp. 220–232., doi:10.1002/imhj.21431.

Perkins, Rosie, et al. “Researchers’ Work from Royal College of Music Focuses on     Postpartum Depression (Learning To Facilitate Arts-in-health Programmes: a Case Study of  Musicians Facilitating Creative Interventions for Mothers With Symptoms of Postnatal  Depression).” Women’s Health Weekly, 4 July 2019, p. 621. Gale Academic Onefile,  https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc