The Effect Of Music On A Fetus: What Every Parent Should Know

But do you know that music can also help a woman as she carries her child in her womb for nine months? Pregnancy is the time when a fetus developed into a baby. As we go further into the nine months, the fetus developed its parts of the body and body functions one by one. Approximately at week 20, the development of the baby’s ears start and as it reaches the 25th week, its auditory nerve is already developed which means it can already hear sounds even just barely. Researches have suggested that if a mother listens to music while in pregnancy, the baby will start responding at week 28 as its motor and cognitive skills will be further enhanced. At week 31, the baby will already hear the mother’s voice and remember it.

Other studies have been conducted to know what are the other effects of music to unborn children. There was a study conducted wherein it was found out the music affects the heart rate of the baby. When Brahms’ famous Lullaby was played, fetuses at weeks 28-32 had an increase in heart rate when the music was played at louder decibels and lowered when it was softened. It was found out that their heart rates also increased when the tempo of the song got faster. This just proves that although they hear music differently from what we hear, the fetuses are paying attention to it, showing how developed their auditory sense was.

Through music, do you know that an unborn child can learn as well? Yes, you read it right, but only under certain circumstances. First, the baby must be at least at week 31 wherein it already has a much developed auditory system. For the baby to be able to hear the sound, the quality of the sound of music must be very good, to the point of surpassing the muffling effects of the amniotic fluid. The music should also be played in a range or distance where the baby could detect it immediately. However, there is still no definite answer as to how a baby can retain its memories of music when it is born. Studies are still underway to solve this.

One fascinating fact about babies who have listened to particular music when their mothers were still pregnant with them is that they were able to remember the melody of the song and respond when they hear it. Another study was conducted wherein pregnant women were made to listen to a specific opera tune. When they gave birth, their babies with ages 2-4 days were also made to listen to the same tune and they responded to it and became more alert compared to the other newborns whose mothers hadn’t heard of the song before. However, if not exposed to that same tune, the babies will eventually forget about the melody.

There was another study that proved at week 27, the auditory sense of unborn children are already developed, and the babies could somehow remember what they have heard. In this research, 27 weeks pregnant women listened to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” five times a week. When they gave birth, the babies were made to listen to the same tune and to another version of the song with some slight changes. It’s amazing how these young ones responded to the unchanged tune compared to the control group. It was also found out that their responses vary in terms of how much exposure to the tune did they got when they were still inside their mother’s womb.

Aside from building a child’s memory and cognitive skills, listening to music while pregnant will make her child learn a language. There are quite a few studies that have been conducted to find out if this argument is indeed true, and if the babies can adapt or pick up the intonations and such of the language used to the songs they listened to. Back in 2009, the newborn babies that were part of the study cried with a rising tone, similar to that of the French tune that they listened to before. On the other hand, those babies exposed to German music with a bit of low tone cried in a similar way. The babies were even able to remember the intonations of their respective language, as well as the vowels, which is basically the first step of learning a language.

Another study showed how newborns responded differently when made to listen to a different sound of vowels than that of what they were used to hearing when they were still in their mother’s womb. American and Swedish babies reacted in other ways when they hear a new sound in a non-native language, proving that they indeed remember the sound they always listened to before. Researchers even say that at week 16, a fetus can already move its tongue, open and close its mouth as a reaction to the sound they are hearing. Although this is hard to validate under normal circumstances and is only possible inside a laboratory with all the needed equipment.

All these recent studies brought about by the advancement of the 21st century, isn’t really a new discovery. The truth is, what these researches have found out are already a fact to Indians as they believe in the philosophy of “Garbh Sanskar”. The first word means “fetus in the womb”, and the latter means “to educate the mind”. The Indians are already well aware that it is possible to educate the minds of the unborn children even when they are still inside the womb. They believe that whatever the baby heard while it was still being conceived will have a great influence in its development. For this, there’s even a “playlist” of the tunes that Indian mothers can play for their baby, and it was believed that this philosophy has helped them to have a normal and healthy pregnancy.

All of these studies didn’t just show that babies can react to the music, they also showed its overall impact and how music was able to influence the different skills of a child while growing up. For example, it was found out in the year 1985 that fetuses who were exposed to music have better focus and attention spans when they grow up as children and tries to communicate with the use of sound earlier than others. Whereas in 1997, it was proven that such babies have better motor and cognitive skills, body coordination, and can even grasp language way easier, have a lesser tendency of crying, and sleeps better than those whose mothers were not exposed to music during their pregnancy. Being exposed to music even before a baby was born makes them more alert and respond faster to different stimulus in their surroundings. These babies are perceived to have better mental functioning, and their behavior and attitude will also be influenced in a good way.

However, music isn’t enough for all of these to happen. It is also important that the mothers sing lullabies to their baby as well. Aside from being a mother and child bonding, singing and even humming will make your child recognize your voice even better and in return, they will cry less. When they do cry, your voice can make them stop because they remember it as the gentle voice who often sang to them before. This way, the stress on taking care of a baby will also be lessened.

Thus, we can say that there really is goodness on making expectant mothers to listen to music. However, when I say music, I am not pertaining to any kind of music. What I mean is music that is soft, gentle, and soothing to listen to like classical music and other lullabies. Not the rock or metal music that is too loud, it will have a bad effect on the baby. In fact, there have been records of early deliveries and premature babies because of the mother’s too much exposure to loud sounds and noise. Also, avoid switching the beat and tempo, or the type of music you listen to just to see how your baby will react. Doing so can damage the baby’s auditory nerve and thus impairing its hearing. Don’t compromise the health of your baby just to satisfy your curiosity.

Instead, you should just enjoy the type of music that makes you relax. Classical music and lullabies, even with their slow tempo, is still possible to enjoy if you want to. It is also important that you love what you’re listening to because if you don’t, then it won’t affect the baby in any good ways. The enjoyment should start from you, then pass it on to your baby.

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