{"id":716814,"date":"2026-06-05T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/716814\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:00:12","slug":"edmontons-grey-nuns-hospital-looking-to-fund-nicu-music-therapy-program-edmonton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/716814\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton\u2019s Grey Nuns Hospital looking to fund NICU music therapy program – Edmonton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having your child stay at the NICU can be difficult for any family. One program at Edmonton\u2019s Grey Nuns Hospital<\/a> is hoping to make that easier, through the power of music.<\/p>\n

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Gypsy Bendoy\u2019s son, Timothy, has been in the hospital since he was born. On Thursday, joy and music filled his room.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was smiling, could see like a little smile in his face,\u201d said Bendoy.<\/p>\n

Timothy was born prematurely and is just over a month old. He is in the NICU at Edmonton\u2019s Grey Nuns Community Hospital.<\/p>\n

Music has been a big part of his short life, as Bendoy\u2019s husband is a musician. She says her husband has played music for all three of their children, who were all born prematurely.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband played music when they were still in my tummies, like all my babies were still in my tummies, and even after they were born, they all loved music,\u201d said Bendoy.<\/p>\n

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But on Thursday, a different musician paid Timothy a visit.<\/p>\n

Her name is Rebecca Lappa, and she\u2019s actually not a musician but a music therapist.<\/p>\n

Lappa is from Edmonton and was born prematurely. She\u2019s also a master\u2019s student and approached the hospital with an idea for the first NICU music therapy program in Edmonton \u2014 one she says has many benefits.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou can be supporting people with reducing their heart rate, supporting sleep regulation, bonding with parents. A really great way for somebody in the NICU to bond with their baby, even if they aren\u2019t able to, say, pick them up or cuddle them or do maybe any of the normal things that you might be doing,\u201d Lappa said.<\/p>\n

The effect was felt first hand by the Bendoys. Lappa played the guitar for the mother and son, reducing young Timothy\u2019s heart rate and bringing a tear to Bendoy\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the time he was born with all this, like sometimes monitors, alarms and all that stuff, it scares you. It never gets easier,\u201d said Bendoy. \u201cSeeing my baby without monitors, responding to it, relaxing, it\u2019s all coming back to me. \u201d<\/p>\n

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The music therapy program ran for four months at the Grey Nuns. With the positive feedback from families, the hospital is hoping to make it permanent.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe family is more mental health benefits, really uplifting, takes them to a different place than being in a critical care hospital environment,\u201d said Mark Lansing, program manager at the Grey Nuns Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s one of those things that\u2019s universal. Regardless of what culture you come from or language you speak, music speaks to everybody. So it\u2019s a way that everybody can connect on a human level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-year program could cost up to $70,000. They\u2019re looking to the community to help fund it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program has a way of completely transforming people\u2019s lives from birth to the families. It\u2019s something that will create lasting impact in a really innovative way,\u201d said Karlee Conway, marketing and communications director for the Covenant Foundation.<\/p>\n

Bendoy hopes other families in the NICU get to experience what she did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s emotional because you know music is like a connection to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having your child stay at the NICU can be difficult for any family. One program at Edmonton\u2019s Grey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,157348,23752,259568,157347,84,72196],"class_list":["post-716814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-covenant-health","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-hospitals","tag-grey-nuns-hospital","tag-health","tag-music-therapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}