Dear Isabelle and Vocalisters:
I have taught a few students who have gone through a pregnancy while studying voice. In each case they were comfortable singing until almost their delivery day but their sense of breath management changed a lot. Most of them discovered some new and helpful things about breath management during pregnancy and after delivery.
The hormonal changes had a noticeable effect on the voices but it was not a bad effect. In each case the voice become more rich and had a wider palette of colors from which to draw.
After delivery, each student found that returning early to a reduced singing practice many times a day actually seemed to accelerate their abdominal and diaphragmatic return to normal.
Also, in each case, the quality of vocal richness seemed to remain. One student has since had two more children with no noticeable changes in vocal quality, good or bad.
Vocal range was affected but only minimally and, in my opinion, was primarily caused by changes in breath managements issues while pregnant. Within 3 months after delivery, original vocal ranges were reestablished and each singer went on to further expansion of their vocal ranges.
Each student also brought new meanings to their singing of lullabies.
Regards -- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011# #
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