It’s a common image in television and film – a pregnant woman rubbing her belly and speaking to her unborn child. Usually intended to get laughs from the audience, the act of communicating to your child before he or she is born is actually pretty serious business. Research has shown that babies can begin to absorb language during the last 10 weeks of pregnancy (Mann). Below is a tentative list of important milestones in fetus development.
1st and 2nd trimester
- At 16 weeks, your baby can hear you even though his or her ears haven’t fully developed!
- At 16 weeks, your little one can even respond to sounds (Hepper & Shahidullah).
- This is a good time to start talking to your baby and introducing him or her to music.
3rd trimester
- At 24 weeks, your baby’s ears have fully developed.
- At 24 weeks, your baby can differentiate new syllables and can distinguish between male and female voices.
- At 27 weeks, your baby can hear music in the womb and can react to it with accelerated heart rate and kicking.
- At 30 weeks, your little one can remember the melody and rhythm of language.
These milestones are illustrated post-birth by newborns’ preference for their mother’s voice over all others. They are also able to understand the emotional content of their mothers’ words by the various intonations of maternal speech. Their ability to distinguish tones and pitches demonstrates why even newborns enjoy music (Mampe et al.).
So start talking to your baby early on and make sure to do so in a calm and relaxed manner. Rock out to some of your favorite tunes – but avoid genres that are too loud and jarring. Combine soothing music with some Parentese. Babies don’t wait until they’re born, why should you?!
Contributed to by Aarushi Sharma
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“The Fetal Senses: A Classical View.” Welcome! N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
Hepper PG, Shahidullah BS. Development of fetal hearing. Archives of Disease in Childhood Fetal and Neonatal edition 1994;71(2):F81-F87.
Mampe, B., AD Friederici, A. Cristophe, and K. Wermke. “Newborns’ Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native Language.” Current Biology 19.23 (2009): 1994-997.
National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 15 Dec. 2009. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
Mann, Denise. “Babies Listen and Learn While in the Womb.” WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.