Research

Noboru Kobayashi, M.D.
Director, Child Research Net

The fetus's brain develops as the fetus grows in the womb. During the last trimester of pregnancy, we can recognize that the fetus's brain develops enough to be able to recognize the heartbeat of the mother as something significant.

Just as the fetus and infant develop experience everything new which is imprinted in their mind, the heartbeat of the mother is imprinted into the brain of the fetus. It is not unbelievable that the newborn infant is calmed and seems to feel some emotions when s/he hears the heartbeat of the mother that this fetus heard in the womb.

Thus, those babies who come into this world are soothed by the sound of their mother's heartbeats and sleep to the lullaby of the soft beating sounds. It is true, and we often witness that babies who are cradled near the mother's left chest and rocked softly fall into a calm sleep. This is probably due to the fact that until a few months ago, the baby was asleep in his/her mother's womb, sleeping peacefully to the background music of his/her mother's heartbeat.

Over 30 years ago in the United States, there was a study conducted where they recorded the heartbeats of healthy mothers and played it for babies in the nursery. It seems that those babies who heard the heartbeat recording cried less and slept better. Furthermore, when compared with the babies who did not hear the recording, they also had better development as far as weight was concerned. There has been a similar study conducted in Japan by an obstetrician, who reported similar results.

WEB MD
What's it Like in the Womb?
By Michelle Blecher Bitnour - WebMD Feature Archive

Instead of the womb being the quiet place scientists once assumed, it is actually awash in sounds, particularly the whooshing of your blood and digestive system, the thumping of your heart and your voice, which sounds louder than it would transmitted through the air since it reverberates through the bones and fluids in your body.

Noises from outside your body are more muffled but they also make it through surprisingly clearly, says Robert Abrams, a fetal physiologist in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Florida. Low frequency sounds, such as those above middle C, tend to be more audible than higher frequency ones. Men's voices, for instance, come through clearer than women's, and music also is easily recognizable.

It appears the fetus can even hear specific speech patterns and intonations, although probably not recognize words themselves, Fifer says. Some studies have shown that babies after birth will recognize -- and be comforted by -- a story read repeatedly to them while in the womb or even by particular songs, like the theme from a television show watched regularly during pregnancy.

Article: How the Science of Sound Helps Your Unborn and Newborn Baby
by Reg Furlough

The transition from the womb to the real world is a very challenging time period for our children. Leaving the womb (where every need and comfort is satisfied on a round-the-clock basis) to a world where the baby must rely upon others to provide her wants and needs, is an abrupt and shocking experience. Some babies adjust well, while others do not.

How can you give your newborn infant a head start in life, even before she's born?

All you have to do is. . . .listen.

The "In Utero" Experience

In utero, beginning at about 7 months, babies have the ability to receive stimulus from the outside world. It is known that the fetus at this stage has already formed the abilities to see, hear and feel.

This is no new age view or old wives' tale.

In 500 BCE, Confucius stated a clear belief that we can influence a child's behavior through the stimulation we give our children in utero. Dating back to even before Confucius, people believed that children in the womb are able to receive stimulus from the world outside of the womb. Through the ages, gestation rituals were developed, including dancing and music, to stimulate the growing fetus.

In 1924, Albrecht Peiper, a Leipzig University pediatrician, confirmed prenatal response to outside stimuli by observing a baby kicking when a car horn was sounded. To this day, science continues to validate the influence of the external world upon the fetus.

Most notably, current research shows that by conditioning our babies during pregnancy to soothing sounds that can be replicated after birth, we can transfer the comfortable feelings of the womb to our newborns in the postnatal world.

SOUNDS THAT SOOTHE, BEFORE AND AFTER BIRTH
There are three distinct sounds that are known to instill a sense of calm in even the fussiest baby: music, white noise and sounds of nature.

The Power of Music

Thomas Verny, M.D., author of The Secret Life of the Unborn Child (Dell, 1994) said in his book, "Musicologists seem to agree that rhythms, similar to the mother's heartbeat, have the most calming effect" on babies in utero.

Others suggest the recognized power of the lullaby can be acquired by speaking softly and rhythmically to your baby. A lullaby is defined as "A soothing song with which to lull a child to sleep."

According to Giselle Whitwell in her article, The Importance of Prenatal Sound and Music:(www.birthpsychology.com/life before/soundindex.htm)

"The elements of music, namely tonal pitch, timbre, intensity and rhythm, are also elements used in speaking a language. For this reason, music prepares the ear, body and brain to listen to, integrate and produce language sounds."


SIDS RESEARCH & SWADDLING
Washington University in St. Louis - School of Medicine

A major focus of this research is development of strategies and public health interventions that may result in prevention of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and related causes of infant deaths.

Project #2: The practice of placing infants on their backs for sleep has greatly reduced the incidence of SIDS in the past 6 years. However, many parents (Ca 30%) still place infants on their stomachs for sleep since, in this position, [many babies] seem to sleep sounder with fewer awakenings. Swaddling (tight wrapping) infants for sleep has been used for centuries in conjunction with back sleeping. Swaddling soothes infants and likely reduces spontaneous arousals from sleep in back sleeping infants. Swaddling of infants, aged 1 to 8 months, has been largely abandoned in the U.S. ... Our recent research has shown that if a swaddling technique is employed that does not restrict breathing or leg movements the health concerns are largely eliminated and babies can sleep more soundly on their backs. We envision that a revival of the practice of swaddling, using this new technique, could increase the acceptance of back sleeping and thereby further reduce SIDS death in the U.S. and abroad.