What the fetus learns in the belly

What the fetus learns in the belly
Fonte: shutterstock

In the past it was thought that only after birth did the baby learn to use the sense organs. Today, however, studies and observations show how already during the intrauterine life the baby matures its sensory abilities. The fetus "feels" first with the skin through the pores and then from the 6th month of gestation also through the hearing: the auditory apparatus completes its maturation between the 2nd and the 5th month. The perception of stimuli, first tactile and then auditory, allows the development of the processes of orientation, knowledge and interaction with the outside world.





Through sounds, especially the mother's voice, the unborn child begins to understand moods and responds to changes by altering their heartbeat and behavior. (Read also: What does the fetus feel in the belly)



In this article

  • memory in the womb
  • sound memory
  • memory tastes and smells
  • movement memory

Memory in the womb: of sounds, tastes, smells and movement


To assess the baby's neurological and psychological development during pregnancy, the scientists focused their attention on fetal memory. Studies on newborns and premature babies have shown how babies already have a functioning memory.



An example: breathing movements in the uterus (although oxygen is not present, the baby develops these movements which will then allow him to breathe once he is born). Observations show how the fetus is able to change behavior in response to different stimuli (auditory, olfactory, gustatory), memorizing and recognizing specific sounds such as the mother's voice or strong smells such as garlic. These learning mechanisms seem to underlie important psychological functions such as maternal recognition, attachment to meaning, language acquisition.

39 PHOTOS

Pregnancy, all that happens in 40 weeks

go to the gallery

How does a baby develop inside his mother's body week after week? Being able to observe the miracle of life that is born and grows is an experience ...

Sound memory

Internal sounds

The most important is the heartbeat maternal (72 decibels) which also induces beneficial effects on the newborn: babies who listen to the recording of the maternal heartbeat are calmer. The scholar L. Salk has dealt a lot with fetal sensoriality and the result of his observations constitutes proof of how already during the intrauterine life there is the development of the senses: if this were not the case, newborns after birth would not show evident signs of well-being. (reduced crying, weight gain) if subjected to listening to the maternal heartbeat.

Internal-external sounds

La mom's voice it is placed in the middle as it is perceived by the child both as internal and external sound and compared to other voices, it has a characteristic sound reaching the deformed fetus, devoid of the most acute components. The unborn child is unable to recognize single words, but perceives the timbre, intensity and duration of the sounds. Through the voice, the expectant mother can establish an important communication with her baby and for this reason she is advised to read fairy tales or sing.

Psychophony

The French singer Marie-Luise Aucher (1908-1994), after a series of researches on the effect of sound on the human body, founded psychophony in 1960. Known above all in France in the psychotherapeutic field, it is considered a training method that uses voice, sound and singing as an instrument, bringing harmony and balance, also useful for preparing for childbirth. Aucher highlighted how the higher maternal voice would resonate in the upper half of the fetus's body, while the paternal one, generally lower, would act at a lower level, positively influencing the sensory-motor coordination of the unborn child. In Del Paese, the major expert in psychophony is the midwife Elisa Benassi who recommends this practice: to reduce anxiety and stress typical of pregnancy; to create an important bond with your child; to facilitate childbirth.

External sounds

The fetus also perceives sounds coming from outside in a muffled way. Studies have shown how the baby is in the womb listens and reacts to daily external noises (telephone, TV, voices, traffic) based on their intensity with different behaviors: for example, the heartbeat decelerates in the presence of a known voice, accelerates otherwise; or the passage of a truck leads him to fidget. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reaffirms the concept of functioning prenatal memory. A group of pregnant women repeatedly heard a recording with a word without any meaning "tatata": after birth, children who had already been exposed to this word during intrauterine life processed it better than those who heard it. for the first time.

Music

Particular behavior is had instead with the music. Researcher Michele Clements in his studies has shown how Mozart and Vivaldi have a calming effect on the unborn, while other composers such as Brahms and Beethoven cause agitation. The same happens with rock music: it is not uncommon for pregnant women to leave during rock concerts for the constant kicks of their baby. Through ultrasound it was possible to observe the movements of the unborn children in relation to the sounds: it is important to listen to harmonious music, avoiding too high frequencies and too loud noises.

The newborn reacts in the same way: during the intrauterine life the child begins to know the external world and memorizes sounds (maternal voice, heartbeat, songs, fairy tales ...) and after birth he prefers them to new ones, confirming that learning and memorization occurs already during pregnancy.

Memory of tastes and smells


During the intrauterine life the fetus begins to memorize smells. Through the amniotic fluid, the unborn child perceives the tastes and flavors of food that mum eats. Researchers at the European Science Center studied the reactions of newborns to cotton flakes soaked in different amniotic fluids: each of them showed more interest in their mother's fluid. This memory is the basis of breastfeeding: milk contains those smells perceived during life in the womb and a sudden change in diet could cause a refusal. From the 12th week the fetus can swallow and learns to recognize those typical flavors present in the amniotic fluid which it will then find in the colostrum.

Movement memory


A study conducted in Del Paese by the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Polyclinic Le Scotte highlighted how the child's balance and his search for motor stimuli are related to habits of the mother during the period of pregnancy. Babies of mothers who have remained still (or in bed) for all 9 months show some more balance difficulties than babies born to more active mothers. For example, motion sickness is a very frequent phenomenon in these infants, a phenomenon linked to the balance system. The lack of prenatal motor stimuli would affect the correct development of the vestibular system. Babies born to mothers who practice dance for example require to be lulled longer as they were used to being subjected to continuous movement.

References

Learning-induced neural plasticity of speech processing before birth - Eino Partanen, Teija Kujala, Risto Naatanen, Auli Liitola, Anke Samneth, Minna Huotilainen - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Chamberlain David - B. Prenatal receptivity and intelligence. Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health, 12 (3 and 4), 95-117.

Clements Michele - Observations on certain aspects of neonatal behavior in response to auditory stimuli. Paper presented to the 5th Interna-tional Congress of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rome.

Salk L. - Mother's heartbeat as an imprinting stimulus. Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, Series 2 (4), 53-63.

Salk, L - The effects of the normal heartbeat sound on the behavior of newborn infant: implications for mental health. World Mental Health, 12, 1-8.

Shetler, Donald J. - The Inquiry Into Prenatal Musical Experience: A Report of the Eastman Project 1980-1987. Pre-and Perinatal Psychology Journal, 3(3), 171-189.

Marie-Luise Aucher - The Sound Man (Ed. Men and Groups)
http://www.psychophonie-mla.org/
http://www.esserevoce.com/

Spnal mediation of motor learning and memory in the rat fetus – Robinson Scott R. Pacific Ethological Laboratories, Olympia, WA, 98501; Delta Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242 – Developmetal Psycology 4 marzo 2022
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25735558
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dev.21277/abstract;
jsessionid=8CBAC0A3AE2C3D40593D8EC9D70107FE.f04t03

The Mind of Your Newborn Baby - David Chamberlain Association for Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) - PhD Boston University

PG Hepper Fetal Memory: Does it exist? – Memory in utero? – Fetal Habituation

PG Hepper and BS Shahidullah: Development of fetal hearing

 

TAG:
  • learning
  • baby bump
add a comment of What the fetus learns in the belly
Comment sent successfully! We will review it in the next few hours.