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We're getting all the feels from this music therapist who records babies' heartbeats

Sometimes it's the little beats that matter most.

We're getting all the feels from this music therapist who records babies' heartbeats

They say music is the key to a person's heart, but one therapist has found that they key to a parent's heart is a sweet combination of music and their child's heartbeat.

Bridget Sova, a 24-year-old music therapist at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., has been using a specialized stethoscope recorder to capture tiny patients' little heartbeats and then blends it with an acoustic guitar tune of the parents' choosing. She gifts the recordings to the children's parents—so far in her career, she's recorded more than 70.

Little, thumping hearts have been recoded on top of everything from classic lullabies to T-Swift and even the Rocky theme song (as requested by one family). Sova makes sure to hand over recordings of the heartbeat without the music, too. “I don’t change the heartbeat. I change the song to fit the heartbeat,” Sova told The Associated Press. “And so that way the song is unique to them and to their son or daughter, brother or sister.”

But working with babies in a hospital is bittersweet; while Sova is happy to be recording their heartbeats, sometimes those babies have severe heart conditions. Baby Mistha, for example, was born with a rare and life-threatening condition and needs a bone marrow transplant. Another baby, Adalyn, was born premature, with Down Syndrome and heart defects. But thanks to Sova, both parents now have a keepsake they can always treasure, no matter what happens.

We love this story because it reminds us that you can find heroism in the little actions in life.

Read more: Mom battling cancer bids farewell to breastfeeding with a touching photo shoot Parents are covering their babies’ bums with peaches and it’s adorable “If you knew more about Down Syndrome, you wouldn’t have made this decision”

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This article was originally published on Jul 08, 2016

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Emily is a content and social strategist, writer, editor and producer based in Toronto, Ontario. Her work can also be found in Chatelaine and on FLAREdotcom.

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