Healthy Level of Music for Baby in Womb

© 2021 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

Music in the womb? Information technology'due south become an almost cartoonish cliché of modernistic pregnancy — a pregnant female parent-to-be playing tunes for her unborn baby.

But is this really a thing? Do fetuses actually answer to music? Will they remember whatever of information technology later? The short respond is aye.

In the final trimester of pregnancy, babies become increasingly capable of hearing a range of musical tones, and studies confirm that babies react — in the womb — to the sounds they hear. Moreover, if a late-term fetus "overhears" the same melody again and again, it will probable recognize this tune later — when it hears the music as a newborn.

Do such prenatal experiences make children smarter? Should parents make a special effort to expose their babies to music through high-tech gadgets?

There'due south no evidence for that, and in fact experts urge parents to avoid sure kinds of music exposure.

For instance, they advise confronting placing earphones or other audio devices directly onto a pregnant woman'south belly. They also warn mothers-to-be to avoid exposing their bodies to loud, deep, booming noises, or to decibel levels that pose a risk to their own hearing.

But the research helps us appreciate that our babies are engaging with the world long before birth. And information technology should encourage parents to share musical experiences with their babies — both before and afterward pregnancy.

Hither are the details.

At what point during pregnancy tin a baby hear music in the womb?

A baby'south sense of hearing doesn't become "online" all at in one case. It happens in steps, and every babe develops at his or her own stride.  And of course sounds go deadened in the womb — peculiarly sounds at higher frequencies.

And so it isn't a straightforward question to answer — the age at which your baby volition be able to hear your favorite melody.

We know that babies tin can hear some sounds during the 2nd trimester of pregnancy, and by 25 weeks gestation, approximately half of all fetuses are responsive to tones in the range of 100-500 Hz — a range that overlaps with adult spoken language (Hepper and Shahidullah 1994). So babies might be capable of hearing music — or at to the lowest degree some fragmentary elements of music — that as well fall into this range.

But for improve listening abilities, we have to wait until babies are bit older — around 30 weeks or more.

For instance, most babies don't respond to tones every bit high equally 1000 Hz (which is just a smidge lower than "loftier C" on a keyboard) until at least thirty weeks gestation  (Hepper and Shahidullah 1994).

And when researchers presented fetuses with an entire lullaby — as opposed to a few, isolated tones — they found evidence that babies begin paying more attending to music at around 33 weeks gestation (Kisilevsky et al 2004).

Can music exist likewise loud for a baby in the womb?

It's possible, so nosotros need to be mindful of the potential for harm. For decades, medical experts accept recommended the same, cautious arroyo to prenatal audio exposure (Graven 2000; Kruger et al 2021):

• Don't attach earphones or any other sound production devices to a pregnant belly.
• Avoid environments where noise levels put your ain hearing at risk.
• If you're listening to lower-frequency sounds, avert sustained volumes over 65 decibels. A mother's torso muffles the intensity of sound that the baby hears, but not as effectively when sounds are lower or deeper. Music with a loud, pulsing bass line could be hazardous.

How do fetuses respond to music?

That'due south a good question. On a superficial level, we know that babies detect when sound — voices or music — filters into the womb. Their centre rates modify, and they tend to move effectually more (east.g., Kisilevsky  et al 2010; Gerhard and Abrams 2000; Arabin and Riedewald 1992).

Just are babies noticing the contours of music? Are they sensitive to patterns? The specific sequence of notes that they hear?

In that location's reason to think and so, considering studies suggest that newborns may remember music they heard during pregnancy.

Evidence that babies can recognize music they heard during gestation

If a pregnant adult female listens to the same melody — again and again — information technology presents a possibility. Might her fetus become familiar with the music? So much so that the babe volition be capable recognizing the melody later — after childbirth?

Decades ago, Peter Hepper tested the idea by observing the responses of newborns to a particular television show theme song.

Some of the babies had gestated with mothers who were fans of the TV program. As fetuses, these babies had heard the theme song many times.

And other babies? Their moms hadn't watched the show during pregnancy. The theme song was totally unfamiliar to them.

And then Hepper played the melody to newborns, and found evidence for fetal memory.

The babies who had "overhead" the theme song during gestation became more alarm. Their heart rates slowed, and they stopped moving around.

This reaction was absent when the aforementioned infants listened to other, unfamiliar melodies. And information technology was also absent among the babies who hadn't been exposed to the TV theme during pregnancy (Hepper 1998).

Intrigued, Hepper conducted a follow-up written report, where he monitored fetuses directly via ultrasound.

Once again, he tested babies' responses to the same TV theme song, and once again, he establish a difference. It wasn't apparent amongst immature fetuses (babies at 30 weeks gestation). But past 37 weeks gestation, infants were behaving differently when they heard familiar (every bit opposed to unfamiliar) music (Hepper 1991).

Is this conclusive? Not exactly. The studies were minor, making it hard to rule out gamble effects. But Hepper's work inspired other research — and the results back up the idea that fetuses can learn about music.

For case, in a controlled experiment, researchers created and recorded a unique piano melody, and then assigned meaning women to play it dorsum to their fetuses, starting at 35 weeks gestation.

The fetuses heard the music twice daily for three weeks only. Then it stopped, with no farther music sessions until 4 weeks after the babies were born.

And that'due south when the babies — 25 infants in total — faced the big test: They were brought to a laboratory, where they heard the tune once again. In addition, they listened to a brand-new slice, another piano tune they had never encountered before.

What happened? The researchers monitored the babies' center rates, and compared these with the middle rates of 25 infants in a control group. And the contrast was pretty dramatic.

Babies in both groups tended to experience a momentary slow-down in heart rate every bit they listened to music. But the effect was much larger for infants who listened to music they had heard previously, during gestation (Granier-Deferre et al 2011).

It was every bit if they recognized the old, "prenatal" music, and found information technology to be specially calming.

What about responses in the brain?

When babies listen to music, it doesn't merely touch their heart rates. It too stimulates encephalon activity, and researchers can track changes in this activity by using event-related potentials (ERPs) – pocket-size changes in voltage that can be detected past attaching electrodes to an babe'southward scalp.

Then Eino Partanen and his colleagues used this approach to look for neural differences in the manner that newborns reply to music. Do their brains react differently if they hear music they encountered during gestation?

Partanen's squad began their report by asking a dozen pregnant women to follow a specific music-listening regimen, starting at 29 weeks gestation.

One time per day, 5 times per week, the mothershoped-for listened to a specially-prepared, keyboard rendition of the song, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Niggling Star."

The babies ended up hearing this melody a lot. Anywhere between 138 and 192 times!

Just the prenatal music "lessons" ended immediately before childbirth. And then, as newborns, the babies heard the tune one time again — the offset time since emerging from the womb.

The researchers recorded the infants' ERPs as they listened. And they did the aforementioned for infants in a control group — newborns who hadn't been through the special, prenatal regimen.

And the outcome?

There was a clear deviation between groups. The babies who had experienced prenatal "training" showed a stronger, more than dramatic change in encephalon activity while listening to the familiar tune.

Moreover, information technology was a departure that lasted. The researchers tested the infants again at 4 months postpartum, and found that babies with prenatal experience of "Twinkle, Twinkle" connected to show a stronger neural response to information technology (Partanen et al 2013).

So does listening to music in the womb brand babies smarter?

There'due south no show for that, or for related claims that we can heave intelligence by listening to music after birth. (Read more most it in my article about the so-called Mozart Effect.)

In fact, as I write this, there is no consensus amidst researchers that prenatal music delivers long-term benefits to babies.

For instance, when researchers take examined trends across studies, they oasis't found that prenatal "music therapy" delivers clinically meaningful health benefits to infants (He et al 2021).

Listening to music tin can reduce stress for the female parent, and that's a good thing. Only it'due south not yet clear if babies experience any special health effects as the result of being exposed to music in the womb.

Nevertheless, we've got reason to think that unborn babies are stimulated by music, and tin can become familiar with sure tunes. That should encourage u.s. to share music with our unborn infants. To sing. To make music with friends. To listen to music the "old-fashioned" way — by filling the the air with it. Non by piping music into earphones.

And this inquiry should inspire us to regard newborns with additional respect. They aren't mere "survival machines," with goose egg in their heads only instinctive programming to eat or cry.

On the contrary, they have been paying attending to the social world — the social globe of sound — for many weeks before birth. And by the time they encounter us confront to face, they are ready — and eager — to acquire more.

More than reading

Want to know what else babies are learning before birth? Check out my Parenting Science commodity, "Prenatal learning: Practice pregnancy foods impact babies' eating habits?"

And for more than information about the remarkable abilities of newborns, run into these Parenting Science articles:

"The social earth of newborns: Why babies are born to learn from our sensitive, loving care"

"Newborn cognitive evolution: What are babies thinking and learning?

"The newborn senses: What tin can babies feel, run across, hear, smell, and taste?"

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References: Music in the womb

Arabin B and Riedewald Due south. 1992. An attempt to quantify characteristics of behavioral states Am J Perinatol 9: 115-119

Gerhardt KJ, Abrams RM. 2000. Fetal exposures to sound and vibroacoustic stimulation. J Perinatol. xx(8 Pt ii):S21-thirty.

Granier-Deferre C, Bassereau Southward, Ribeiro A, Jacquet AY, Decasper AJ. 2011. A melodic contour repeatedly experienced by human near-term fetuses elicits a profound cardiac reaction one month after nascence. PLoS I. 6(ii):e17304.

Graven SN. 2000. Audio and the developing baby in the NICU: conclusions and recommendations for intendance. J Perinatol. twenty(8 Pt ii):S88-93.

He H, Huang J, Zhao X, Li Z. 2021. The effect of prenatal music therapy on fetal and neonatal status: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Complement Ther Med. 60:102756.

Hepper PG. 1988. Fetal "soap" addiction. Lancet 1(8598):1347-8.

Hepper 1991. An Examination of Fetal Learning Earlier and Subsequently Birth. Irish Journal of Psychology 12: 95-107.

Hepper PG and Shahidullah BS. 1994. Development of fetal hearing. Archives of disease in childhood-fetal and neonatal edition 71: F81-F87

James DK, Spencer CJ, Stepsis BW. 2002. Fetal learning: A prospective randomized controlled written report. Ultrasound Obstet. Gynecol. xx:431–438.

Kisilevsky BS and Hains SMJ. 2010. Exploring the relationship between fetal heart charge per unit and noesis. Infant Child. Dev. 19:60–75.

Kisilevsky Southward, Hains SM, Jacquet AY, Granier-Deferre C, Lecanuet JP.  2004. Maturation of fetal responses to music. Dev Sci. 7(5):550-9.

Krueger C, Horesh E, Crossland BA. 2012. opens in a new windowProphylactic sound exposure in the fetus and preterm infant. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs. 41(two):166-170.

Partanen E, Kujala T, Tervaniemi M, Huotilainen M. 2013. Prenatal music exposure induces long-term neural effects. PLoS I. 8(10):e78946.

Content of "How do babies reply to music in the womb" last modified 8/21

Championship image of significant woman at piano past hanamirae / istock

paradigm of ultrasound past Mikail Damkier / shuttestock

image of newborn gazing at female parent by chomplearn / shutterstock

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