When to start reading to baby in womb
Prenatal Development: What Babies Learn in the Womb
Everything starts the day your mum's egg meets your dad's sperm.
Four weeks later your little brain begins to form. Epidemiologist David
Barker says, that whilst developing inside our mother, we are receiving
postcards from the outside world. These postcards tell us if this world is
dangerous or safe, if food is plentiful or scarce. Knowing nothing else, we learn
from those messages. Let's watch what we experience and learn inside the womb
from the fetus perspective. Month 1: only 24 hours alive every bit of genetic
information is already present in a single cell: from our hair color to our
talent as a future pianist. Then we divide ourselves again and again. After
around a week we travel from the ovaries to the uterus where we then undergo the
great divide - splitting into two, half of which will become us while the other
half forms the placenta which brings us food and oxygen and carries away waste.
By week four we have developed into a small being that is growing at a rate of
1 million cells per second. Our spinal cord, heart and brain are now clearly
visible, even if we adjust the size of a poppyseed. Month 2: at about week four to
five our heart starts to beat and we are now ten thousand times bigger than we
were at conception. This is a crucial point in our neurological development as
our brain grows at a rate of around a hundred thousand cells each minute. If
our mother consumes alcohol and drugs or experiences extreme stress or trauma our
tiny brain can get damaged. This can lead to maths problems at school or even
schizophrenia some forty years later. If our mum stays healthy and can relax our
brain can develop to its full potential. We are now the size of a raspberry.
Month 3: at the beginning of month three we start to react to stimuli. Our
sense of smell is developing and exposure to toxins can make us cringe.
Our brain is continuing to grow very fast our Ears start forming and we can
soon hear our mum's heartbeat and voice speak. Still small enough we have plenty
of space to move inside the belly. Our mother's womb becomes our sensory
playground we learn to move our arms, stretch our fingers, smile or suck our
thumb. 75% of us are now showing a preference to use the right hand we are
now around the size of a lemon. Month 4: our head makes up about half our total
size. We learn to kick, pee and how to swallow. Our taste buds are developing. If
our mother eats a wide variety of things we learn to appreciate different tastes
and become less fussy eaters later in life. If we receive inadequate or poor
nutrients we adapt our physiology to sustain our development. This process is
also called fetal programming. Some researchers have found that this can
result in health problems such as obesity, heart conditions and diabetes
later in life. We are now around the size of a big tomato. Month 5: while earlier
our mums voice sounded muffled now it is starting to become clear. We are also
experiencing a big growth spurt and we start the development of our teeth and
our first real hair, fingernails, eyebrows and eyelashes. We are becoming more
active each day and enjoying flexing our tiny muscles. As we wriggle, kick and turn
our mother will start to feel as moving. If she responds we learned that for
every action there is a reaction. We are now around the size of a dragon fruit.
During this sixth month a major mark of brain development occurs. Our brains
cerebral cortex splits into two hemispheres. But it's also an exciting
month for our eyes which open for the first time. Even though we see only blurs
we start to respond to light. Some say it's good if our mum now takes us into
the sun. We are now starting to make simple facial expressions such as
forming a grin. We probably learn to communicate for the time when we are
born when we want to show our feelings. We are now around the size of a small
cauliflower. Month 7: we begin to develop regular intervals for sleeping and being
awake. The hair on our head is now clearly visible and our milk teeth have
formed under our gums. When we hear our mum speak we may respond with an
increased heartbeat and movement. Some researchers claim that we now begin to
learn language from hearing the voices from outside because once born we seem
to show a preference for our dads and mums native language. If we were to be
born now we would have a 90% chance of survival and arrived the size of a
pineapple. Month 8 we are now behaving like a newborn. Our brain is functional
and our nervous system ready. Our lungs are almost fully formed and we are
practicing breathing by inhaling and the amniotic fluid. Ee now spend almost all of
our time as sleep, maybe dreaming about our near future. In preparation for birth
most of us will have now turned upside down. To get through that tiny hole at
the end of the tunnel our bones and skull are still extremely flexible. Only
the immune system is still in its infancy.
It will take many months after birth until our internal body guards can fully
protect our health. We are now around the size of a melon.
Month 9: in the last month we keep practicing our motor skills and kicks.
When our mum laughs eat sweets or drinks an ice tea we might respond by bouncing
up and down. If we could already understand research papers we would now
hope that our mum can bring us to the world through natural birth which
protects us through a stronger immune system for life. The puzzle of what is
nurture and what is nature is now well underway and already shows a first image
of our character. The most important missing piece will be added in our early
childhood. At the end of the nine months we are around the size of a jackfruit.
After many hours of hard labour we will be welcomed into this world. Some
will then be instantly taken away for various checkup procedures and bathing.
But if we are lucky we will first spend some time with our mum. If placed on her
belly we will instinctively crawl to her
breast and then show us sucking skills. This makes us happy, full and feel safe.
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