Specialized in the field of Human Reproduction, Dr. Onica Armijo has worked at the La Paz University Hospital in the capital of Spain since 2004, and uses music for patients who undergo the in vitro fertilization technique, thereby relieving anxiety or fears and create an environment of empathy between them and health professionals, in addition to increasing the number of successful pregnancies.
Armijo is also the co-author, along with Dr. María de La Calle, of the books “The diet of fertility and pregnancy” and “Pregnant at forty and over”, in addition to being the mother of three children.
He explains how he came to introduce this technique to his patients: “The information about the usefulness of music in the fertilization process came to me through my former teacher, Dr. Carmen Cuadrado, who was head of the service of our unit for many years. She was a very studious woman and read an article explaining that music relaxed the patient, increasing pregnancy rates. As a result, she taught us daily practice about assisted reproduction and the application of the music”.
“A MORE COMFORTABLE, MORE BEAUTIFUL ENVIRONMENT”.
“It seemed to me that this was important because the patient could relax, create a more comfortable, more beautiful environment, because these women carry a lot of emotional charge in the search for pregnancy, until this act of gestation becomes a medical act “Armijo points out.
According to the doctor, “music caused a more endearing environment in the operating room and at the time of receiving her embryo. All of this evolved and I incorporated it thanks to the music payment platforms that now exist. I tell my patients that let them choose the music that transports them to a place that they like, that gives them good energy and that relaxes them. “
Onica Armijo argues that “it was probably Dr. Cuadrado, along with Dr. Manuel Ardoy Vilches, embryologist and head of the Embryology Laboratory of Hospital La Paz until 2005, the pioneers in using music for these fertility treatments, although I cannot assure that don’t use it in other hospitals anymore. “
La Paz Hospital, in Madrid, was the first public health center in Spain that began to perform in vitro fertilization and, although they were not the first to achieve it, they began to try it in the eighties of the last century.
MOMENTS FOR MUSIC.
But, what is the moment during the process when the music starts playing? “Fundamentally – Armijo points out – during the embryo transfer, that is the moment when we put it systematically and it is something that our unit has already incorporated universally. At first not all my colleagues did it, but now, and the nurse who is in the operating room he has incorporated it to all patients, regardless of whether we are one or another professional “.
But, in addition, the doctor indicates that “every time I incorporate it more to the anesthetic induction, so that, while the route is being taken, the patient can fall asleep more calmly, and in the follicular puncture (follicular aspiration of the oocytes by control Besides the fact that, as we let them choose, they are also discovering us authors and music that doctors did not know. You are surprised by people who like musicians that I did not know existed, so I am learning a lot about music ” .
“Sometimes we also do it with inseminations, because patients are usually very nervous at the time of having them. It is beneficial for those of us who are working with them because I think that, in the end, once the patient is asleep or when we do embryo transfer creates a much more pleasant and comfortable operating room environment for everyone “.
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