Nothing beats the sound of a gentle and soothing voice, especially to the frailest infants confined to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, commonly called a NICU.

St. Tammany Health System's NICU Nursing Director Suzanne Fraiche said there are studies showing that being read to at such a young age has lasting impacts.

“It is demonstrated that it benefits speech and language development. We know that babies in the NICU are at risk for speech delay and lower IQs because of medical complications, sometimes it takes them longer to catch up,” Fraiche said. “And parents can feel isolated from the baby, but when (babies) hear the voices, they know somebody is out there," Fraiche said.

“If one ear on (a baby's) ear exam is worse than the other, we make sure the other ear is up” to better hear voice

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