A lot of pregnant women often talk, sing, play music, and find ways to communicate with their unborn babies. While some people may think that this may not do anything for an unborn child, studies now show that as a matter of fact, this practice is vital in the development of baby communication skills and must be encouraged.
Baby talk unique to what parents speak
One of the things that have baffled scientists is how the type of babble or gurgle of a newborn would be different from another newborn, depending on the kind of language that their parents have been born to. For instance, a Chinese baby would sound differently from an American baby. According to ScienceDaily, infants start to pick up a few of the aspects of whatever their first language will be while still in the womb. This begins long before they actually start to babble.
What this particular study points out to is that babies are not only able to produce a variety of cry melodies. They also opt to produce these particular patterns according to what they hear while inside the womb. These particular data maintain the significance of a baby’s crying in developing language skills.
An unborn child is capable of memorizing a variety of sounds coming from the outside world during the mother’s last trimester. The newborn will favor his mother’s voice from others, distinguishing the emotional substance of these messages sent through the tonal forms in a mother’s speech. His particular inclination for the language used around him, as well his capability to differentiate various languages from each other, is primarily founded on melody.
Practicing the art of frowning inside the womb
According to a report from the Daily Mirror, infants practice how to frown while inside the mother’s womb to be able to communicate unhappiness after they are born. This particular report is based on a study done with the use of ultrasound scans showing facial movements done by 15 babies inside the womb during the latter part of the mother’s pregnancy. Here, researchers discovered that as babies matured, they displayed more complex expressions on their faces, together with those that showed pain and discomfort. Some of these expressions were a lowering of the brows and wrinkled noses, along with lips that were parted. However, this study did not point out to a baby actually going through real pain. As a matter of fact, the scanning took place while the pregnant mothers were relaxed and in most cases, were experiencing healthy pregnancies. Because of this, there would be no reason to believe that the babies would be going through any kind of pain.
One hypothesis is that these expressions were merely being practiced by the unborn infants. The only way a baby could truly communicate with others would be through crying. It could be that it is a baby’s method of preparation, practicing expressions and crying as well before he is outside his mother’s womb. Although the theory is quite fascinating, it still has to be proven.
Dr. Nadja Reissland, lead researcher for this particular research suggests that it would be much easier for doctors to be able to recognize problems through an understanding of normal development. She adds that it is unclear whether or not a foetus is able to feel pain, or if these particular facial expressions the unborn child displays can be linked to whatever he is feeling. It has been indicated that the movements of the baby’s face were connected to the maturity of his brain, instead of how the baby actually felt.
Communicating with the unborn baby
It is truly an amazing thing to be able to understand more deeply about what an unborn baby experiences inside a mother’s womb. Modern technology has been able to capture moments that have not been seen before, and studies continue to help us learn a little bit more each day. Communicating with an unborn child is something that mothers must practice, whether it is with soothing words, nursery rhymes or music.
There are in fact some scientists who suggest that a combination of soft music together with talk directed at the infant can be extremely beneficial for an infant’s language development. It may be that more research is needed to further reinforce this particular theory, but more and more mothers have sworn to the positive effects of communicating with their unborn babies.