It is commonly said that babies hear us even when they are still in the womb. They recommend that we talk to them, both mothers and fathers, so that they get used to our voices.
It is even recommended that we play quiet music so that they listen to it and, if we choose a specific piece and repeat it often better, so that when they leave they will recognize it and help them calm down.
But, What do babies hear inside the belly exactly? Do you hear us? When do they start hearing us? Does the music I put on it have to be classical music?
The first thing to say is that yes they hear us. It is not that they clearly hear what is happening, far from it, because they are inside the uterus, they float in amniotic fluid and that, you want it not, muffles the sound a lot. However, they do distinguish environmental sounds and can get to know the mother's tone when speaking and even the father's tone when speaking.
When do the fetus begin to hear?
By week 20 the fetus begins to perceive sounds, being the first to hear the beating of the heart of his mother and his voice (the voice of the mother comes from within). The baby's ear is fully mature at 25 weeks gestation. From that moment on he hears the environmental noises, reacting to them with grimaces like winks of the eyes or even frowning if the noises are loud.
It has also been seen that before sudden noises can make some sudden movement and it has been evidenced that there may be a momentary acceleration of the heart rate, which is the same thing that happens to us when we get scared.
What do they hear inside the belly?
From the moment they begin to hear, babies continually listen to mom's heartbeat, palpitation of the arteries and, when they occur, the sounds of the “guts”, the voice of the mother and to a lesser extent What happens abroad.
As I said, the amniotic fluid, in addition to the skin, the uterus and ultimately all the tissues between the baby and the outside, make a brake for noise. It is estimated that the baby receives about 20 decibels less or less than what happens outside. If we enter a nightclub, with music at about 100 decibels, about 80 will arrive, which is equivalent to having a very high volume stereo.
As we are not going to the disco, we could say that the intense traffic in a city, which generates 60 decibels, would reach the baby in about 40 decibels, which is the noise we generate when breaking a sheet of paper. If we extrapolate this to the voice, our normal tone generates about 60 decibels, while if we speak in a low voice (not whispering, but in a low voice), we generate about 30-40 decibels. From this it is extracted that so that our baby hears us (to the parents) we have to speak to him normal ... if we speak to him in a low voice, then he will hear us very little.
Is it good to put music on them?
I guess the best answer for this question is: bad is not. There are mothers who do play music, repeating it often, and then continue listening to it when the baby is born, with the intention of calming them.
What I would say to a mother is to listen to music that she likes simply to enjoy it. To listen to her, to relax with her and since she does, if she wants to, to do it in the evening. At that time the infants' brain is very active and reacts more to stimuli (it is said that it reacts up to twice as fast).
So about that time the ideal is to put music that you like, sit on the sofa, lift your legs and enjoy the moment (see if the baby enjoys too ...).
If after birth you want to play the same music you heard when you were pregnant, do it, it has been observed that Babies respond more carefully to the music they had heard inside the womb than to the one they had never heard.
Is it better to play classical music?
Many parents have met several classical music composers because we have babies. They make videos for babies with classical music, they say that with Mozart they get smarter or calm down, etc.
The truth is that it doesn't matter. If you like classical music, it can be very stimulating and calming to listen to it to relax and enjoy. If you don't like it or if you don't know the pieces and do it for the baby, it's better that you put on music that you like.
The important thing after all is not the music you play, but when you listen to it you relax: when the mothers are calmer and consequently less stressed the blood supply to the placenta improves markedly.
