If you’re starting to show, it’s time to start talking to your bump, according to the latest study from Harvard University.
Although scientists have long known that a foetus can feel the thump of its mother heartbeat, it’s now been proven that speaking to your bump is the first stage in your child’s development.
According to the findings published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the sound of the maternal voice plays a direct role in in the hearing and language development of a baby.
According to researchers, when the child hears its mother’s voice from inside the womb, the sensation stimulates the auditory cortex – the part of the brain which processes the language.
For the study, 40 premature infants were divided into two groups at Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The first group were played three hours of their mother’s voice and heartbeat every day for a month, while the second group only heard routine background noise from the hospital wards and talking.
Following the 30 day trial period, the babies in the first group who had listened to their mother’s voices were seen to have a larger auditory cortex.
The lead research doctor on the study, Dr Amir Lahav said:
“We demonstrate that the auditory cortex is more adaptive to womb-like maternal sounds than to environmental noise. Results are supported by the biological fact that maternal sounds would otherwise be present in utero [the womb] had the baby not been born prematurely.
“We theorise that exposure maternal sounds may provide newborns with the auditory fitness necessary to shape the brain for hearing and language development.”
