Playing music for your bump has become an almost cliched part of pregnancy – but does it work?
Studies demonstrate that foetuses respond to music. One research project revealed that Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik caused tongue protrusion in 91% of foetuses studied, while Adele’s Someone Like You only garnered 60% response.
Stimulates Your Unborn Baby’s Reflexes
Music has been found to stimulate an unborn baby’s reflexes and movements. It may help improve their reaction and movement even though they cannot comprehend it at this stage. Vibrations produced by music cause movement within their bodies causing vibrations that make your fetus move along with it, thus strengthening motor skills when they emerge from utero and improving overall strength.
Speakers are the optimal way to play music during pregnancy as using headphones directly on the belly can overstimulate and cause stress on both mother and fetus. Your unborn can hear the rhythm of each song as they hear its beat; choosing soft and soothing songs will help to foster calm personalities in your baby, and make for better restfulness throughout their development. Tempo of the music should match up with that of your resting heart rate to sooth both mother and fetus alike.
At 16-18 weeks gestation, your baby’s ears begin to develop and they can recognize familiar sounds such as their mother’s voice, native language and word patterns and rhymes, squeals from siblings or the noise from TV or radio sets or radio broadcasts. Even tickling with fingers for different lengths of time produces delightful results!
One study concluded that pregnant women listening to Indian classical music of the Kalyani raga had a beneficial impact on their unborn babies’ cognitive, behavioral, sensory, and psychological development during gestation. Furthermore, their offspring possessed higher levels of intelligence due to being exposed to musical stimuli before birth.
Next time you are experiencing a dull moment, try listening to some soothing music which can relax both you and your unborn baby! Although, listening for only short amounts of time each day may reduce the risk of high blood pressure during gestation while helping strengthen bonds with their new sibling once born.
Stimulates Your Unborn Baby’s Movement
Music can help make any day brighter and relieve your stress, as well as boost your mood and stimulate the unborn baby. Check out some soothing tunes on iMumz and see how it makes you feel – when listening to music, good hormones flow through your placenta which make both mother and fetus happy!
At 18 to 38 weeks gestation, 300 babies were exposed to 15 songs from various genres during a study by Institut Marques. When Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik was played, researchers saw tongue movements from 91% of foetuses while Adele’s Something Like You only generated 60 responses. Furthermore, high intensity music caused stronger responses while lower intensity tunes soothed them more effectively.
Babies begin hearing limited noises around week 16 of gestation and by 24 weeks their outer, middle, and inner ears — including their cochlea, which converts vibrations to nerve impulses in our inner ears–are all well developed enough to turn their heads in response to voices or other sounds. Studies show that babies recognize their mother’s voice, native language word patterns, or rhymes by 35 weeks.
Baby will likely recall hearing music while inside their mother’s womb and use this familiar music as a form of comfort after birth, which can contribute to both their emotional and cognitive growth.
While it’s best not to play loud music during pregnancy, a bit of Mozart and Bach won’t hurt anyone! Just remember not to turn the volume up too high or place headphones directly onto your belly; that could provide too much stimulation for your little one!
Stimulates Your Unborn Baby’s Brain Activity
Prenatal music can help stimulate your baby’s brain and promote its development. Furthermore, music can reduce stress in mother and boost her mood – benefits which will then pass to fetus as it continues to grow and develop.
At around the third trimester of gestation, your unborn child’s ears become functional enough for hearing outside the womb – while they can hear you talking, loud noises should be avoided to ensure an ideal birth environment for your unborn baby.
Instead, try listening to soothing music or humming melodies yourself. Play some of your favorite tunes such as your favorite song or classical piece; just avoid placing headphones directly over your belly as this could amplify the noise and potentially harm the fetus.
Though your infant may not understand all that you say yet, their brain does have an incredible capacity for recognising and remembering music. One study demonstrated this fact by finding that newborns who had heard a particular piano melody before birth still recognized it months later when hearing it as part of television theme song or show tune.
Your unborn child has already developed an aural memory based on vibrations from music’s rhythm and lyrics that reach his or her ears, providing a form of communication between you and him or her that will remain potent as your baby develops.
Listening to music not only stimulates your fetus’s brain but can also strengthen bonds between you and your baby, helping both of you bond more deeply together. Music can even be used as a soothing agent when your infant starts crying; using soothing tunes is an effective way to ease their distress and get them back to sleep quickly.
Studies have demonstrated that preterm infants who were exposed to music during their third trimester are better able to concentrate and develop more sensitive auditory senses, which in turn contributes to improved listening skills, speech development and emotional wellbeing.
Stimulates Your Unborn Baby’s Memory
Modern pregnancy has become synonymous with mother-to-bes playing tunes for their unborn baby – yet this may or may not actually stimulate development? And can fetuses react and remember music played to them during gestation?
Studies have demonstrated that fetuses can indeed recognize and recall melodies they heard while still in the womb. In one controlled experiment, researchers played a specific piano melody to pregnant women during their third trimester (34 weeks gestation), then repeated it four months after birth to these newborns – those who had heard this music while still gestating lit up more on brain scans when hearing its familiar tune again!
As is evident by these results, which remain enigmatic as regards their effect and scope, further research supports the idea that babies’ brains can indeed learn music.
Whenever playing music for your baby, experts advise setting the volume at an average conversational volume level. Exposing pregnant mothers and fetuses to loud music could cause irreparable hearing damage during gestation; additionally, amniotic fluid muffles any sounds made audible outside the womb.
Try playing soothing songs or lullabies such as Rockabye Baby or Classic Artists Reimagined as Lullabys to relax and bond with your infant while also improving his or her sleep quality. These playlists may help both of you.
Your baby may enjoy hearing you sing or hum lullabies; just remember not to place headphones directly onto your belly as this can increase noise levels to potentially unsafe levels, which could hurt or startle them.
Experts agree that listening to soothing music or sounds during gestation will help your baby recall them after birth, providing an effective means of soothing him or her and feeling more connected to their mother and childhood memories. Listening to such soothing tunes may even help reduce distress for a mother going through labor! Many experts also believe this to be true with children as well. This can provide great comfort during difficult moments as familiar songs or beats will bring back cherished memories from inside their womb as they develop further into childhood themselves.