Following the post on the fetal recognition of vowel sounds and other articles that analyze the linguistic capacity of babies, I have wondered if so much study prevents us from seeing another important factor of speaking to the belly, the emotional.
To what extent are the early "achievements" important, prenatal stimulation, is something we also ask ourselves lately, immersed in a society in which the "better as soon as possible, better as more" prevails. Babies smarter as soon as possible if we put them music or talk to them from pregnancy, languages from small, specific drawings to learn ...
Any baby has the right to listen to his mother's voice, distorted like everything that comes from outside, but recognizable at the end. But it's not about the baby arriving before or beyond.
It is not about challenges, that the baby learns before, that he knows how to differentiate languages or that he recognizes his own ... but that the simple gesture of speaking already contributes a lot to the mother. That is, even if the baby did not hear anything at all, talking to the belly is good for the mother and the couple.
Talk to the fetus before he hears us
We do not need to wait for five months of gestation, when the fetus has developed the sense of hearing. An audition that can barely be distinguished from the other senses, such as the sense of touch, but that makes it possible for the first time to come into contact with the outside world.
In fact, surely those who have already been mothers discovered you talking to the belly long before that date, knowing the news of the pregnancy, with the first symptoms ... And you probably spoke to him with the conviction that the baby would not hear you.
Little does it matter then for the baby to listen. Rather than transmitting something to the fetus, what we want is to shape it, give it a name, make it real, feel it closer. That is why there are couples who prudently prefer not to give a name or talk to the baby until uncertainty passes the first trimester. Because otherwise we would have done it in our most real mind, and if something goes wrong it would probably hurt more.
Talking to the belly serves us "outsiders"
But especially as the months progress, the mother's womb grows and we notice more and more the baby, its kicks and movements ... when the date of delivery approaches, talking to the baby reassures us. It prepares us for that moment, to meet him once he is in our arms, because he will not be a stranger: we know his name and we have had conversations with him (rather monologues ...).
With luck, the baby already knows not only the sound of the bloodstream and the heartbeat, but also the mother's voice, which will thus become a balm for fear and restlessness once it is born. It is the first link between mother and son: before seeing his face, before smelling his skin, the baby already knows how his voice sounds.
He has heard her while we talk to anyone, also when we talk to him; when we sing in the shower, and when we sing to the belly; when we laugh with each other and when we laugh at their cartwheels.
It is not that the baby clearly hears the mother's voice, as we can hear it. Because from inside the voice sounds different, it is heard mixed with the rest of the sounds of the body and with the resonance effect of the trachea, the spine ... and the passage through the amniotic fluid.
It would be a mistake not to speak to the fetus thinking that he does not hear us, but the same would happen if we speak to him simply because we think it will be beneficial for his intellectual development. It is undoubtedly beneficial for the emotional side of the mother and the couple, and that simple fact should encourage us to speak to the belly, as little as those sounds were to influence the baby (which I do not want to say is little).
The stimulation of the baby begins in the womb, and the auditory is the sense on which we can act best. But, would we stop talking to the baby if we knew it would be born without a sense of hearing? Surely, next to the caresses and massages that you can perceive (there are many ways to communicate with the baby during pregnancy), talking to him strengthens the bond even before birth.
Talking to the baby, singing, stroking the belly… will make the baby closer and prepares us for that great step of motherhood and fatherhood, which will discover many new and unique sensations. And once born we will multiply the joy we feel when we see (now yes) that the baby calms our voice, a music, a caress ... Because now almost all of his senses are available.
Photos | davhor and cscott2006 on Flickr In Babies and more | How much does the newborn see ?, Hearing development in the baby, What do babies hear inside the belly?
