Can babies hear their mother's voice before being born?

At five months of gestation is the best time to start communicating with the baby through stimulation as the sense of hearing begins to develop, an auditory sense that can still barely be differentiated from the other senses allowing the baby to be in contact with the outside world for the first time. The child is immersed in a sound atmosphere that surrounds and stimulates them 24 hours a day.

How to communicate with the baby

During their stay in the mother's womb, noise is reduced to what is produced in the mother's body: the heartbeat and voice, the baby listens to her narrate, laugh, sing... For this reason, the first bond between mother and child is created before they see each other face to face. The mother's voice is the cord that will unite them from the very beginning. Sound is vibration and reaches the baby through two pathways: auditory and sensory, this information will reach the brain and will be processed there, being fundamental for their neurological development. When the pregnant mother speaks, her voice resonates along her spine, especially in the vertebrae located at the level of the abdomen. The voice vibrates through the amniotic fluid reaching the child. Therefore, the baby moves especially when the mother speaks, reacting to the stimulus. Also, if the baby is already in a cephalic position, that is, head down, they will be in direct contact with the bones of the hip cavity, increasing their perception of vibrations and, as a consequence, they will hear more intensely. Babies in the womb can differentiate between good sounds and bad sounds. The messages of love from the mother reach them increasingly well: when the mother speaks to her child, they calm down or react joyfully. Even after birth, this bond is continuous causing the baby to relax and calm down on the mother's chest when they recognize her voice and vibrations. In addition to the frequencies of the mother's voice, during pregnancy the baby is in constant auditory contact with the mother's heartbeat, and with her breathing rhythm, after birth, the mother's voice is maintained and continues to transmit those rhythms. Studies conducted at the University of North Carolina in the USA affirm that babies stimulated in the womb show greater auditory and motor development at birth, they sleep better, calm down more easily when hearing the voices and music they heard during fetal life, are alert, and are more secure and affectionate.