Music and motherhood

On 6 October 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe convenes a one-day meeting dedicated to the role of the arts in health care, featuring a presentation of a multi-country pilot study entitled 'Music and motherhood'. Taking place at the UN City in Copenhagen, the meeting is a collaboration with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab (JAHL), and incorporates music, live sketches, poetry and arts breaks with panel sessions, presentations and collaborative group discussions to explore the potential of culture and the arts to innovate and support mainstream healthcare systems.

The event programme focuses on the presentation of 'Music and motherhood', a multi-country, WHO-led implementation study of an arts intervention supporting mothers who experience postpartum depression. The intervention was organised by Cluj Cultural Centre and initiated under the WHO Music and Motherhood protocol. Traditional therapies have made strides in providing relief, but so have alternative, holistic avenues like music therapy demonstrated promising results in maternal well-being. The learnings and implications of the study, which was built around group singing sessions specifically designed for affected mothers and conducted in Denmark, Italy and Romania, intend to determine the feasibility of implementing the intervention and similar art and healthcare initiatives in other cultural contexts.