Sensory Stimulation
Begin the Bonding Process in the Womb
You are probably very anxious to hold your child for the first time and really begin get to know her. But you don't need to wait until she is born to begin to get acquainted because she is already equipped to communicate in rudimentary ways.
As early as the eighth week of pregnancy, the nerve endings that perceive touch have appeared on your baby's skin, and by the tenth week her brain’s neurons have begun to form synapses (connections) in response to repeated sensory experiences such as touch and movement. She is already learning as she feels your body bend, walk, stretch, or dance! At about the fifth month her ear is formed, making hearing the first fully functional sense. After this, she can hear most ordinary sounds in the immediate surroundings - voices, music, traffic sounds, etc.
Since the senses gather the information that stimulates the brain to develop, learn, and remember, your unborn baby can be stimulated through auditory, tactile, and movement experiences. Studies have shown that by the twenty-forth week, baby's heart rate will increase in response to patting or stroking your abdomen! But really now, how much learning can take place? Are we going to teach her the alphabet or a foreign language? Could I make my child a genius through prenatal education? Some people do try but most believe that baby is merely beginning to lay the foundation for the hard job of becoming acquainted with the world.
Perhaps the most important learning experiences baby is having are emotional. Since the enzyme mixture produced by your emotional responses is one of the few substances able to cross the placenta, she feels the same emotions you feel at any given time. And, since she shares your emotions, she can also learn to associate emotions with various sensory experiences. This is why music that relaxes you during pregnancy also relaxes her after birth. So if reading aloud or singing a song to baby in the womb is a pleasant experience for you, it is also pleasant to her. And this pleasure will be remembered after birth if the song or story has been repeated often enough to create an association with the emotional response. The child not only learns the inflection and contours of language or a melody, but also associates it with comfort.
So it is not a real stretch to say that by carefully choosing and presenting appropriate sensory experiences involving movement, touch, and sound for your child before birth, you can guide the development and perhaps even increase her learning potential. More importantly, you can give your child a sense of security while you are developing a sense of closeness through emotional communication, even before birth.
What kinds of sensory experiences are appropriate? Reading stories or poems aloud is good. Most children's books have rhythmic and rhyming words, which help baby as similate the ebb and flow of her native language. Yoga or other gentle forms of stretching and posturing give her a sense of movement and balance. (Remember the ear is also the source of balance.) Listening to music is an activity that most people think of immediately. As you listen, add movement such as patting, stroking, rocking, swaying, or any other rhythmic response to music. By stimulating two or more senses at once, a more powerful sensory experience is created. Researchers have discovered that music, along with a coordinated rhythmic movement, has a unique coordinating effect between the two hemispheres of the brain.
A wide variety of music is best, rather than just your favorites, because it will help baby develop her own tastes and preferences. Also, different music evokes different moods and movements, giving her a wider variety of stimulation. Some researchers have noticed a pre-natal preference for baroque and classical music, but those are not necessarily the only types of music that can be good. A warning: prolonged exposure to rock music can result in fetal distress and may actually inhibit sensory perception. It is best to avoid any music with a very heavy beat. Bear in mind that while variety is good, repetition of the same or similar experience will allow her to form associations and become familiar with the experience. You may find that repeating these familiar routines after birth will give you both a wonderful bonding lift.
Many people believe that baby's best prenatal musical experience is the movement of your body along with the sound of your voice singing. She will feel the vibrations of your voice, feel the movement, matching music sung by that special, familiar voice, the one she hears most often, while enjoying the mood in your body produced by singing and moving. Singing by other people, especially dad or siblings, will help baby get acquainted with them and help them begin to establish a relationship before birth. After birth, baby will have some familiar sensations to give her a sense of sameness and security.
So you say you're not very musical? Feel silly reading, singing, and dancing by yourself or with others? Most parents in our society today feel inadequate when it comes to providing musical training to their offspring. But baby needs only very simple musical experiences, and even if you don't like the sound of your singing, she does. Your voice is the most important voice in the world to her. Try speaking rhythmically, raising your voice high and low or humming along with a recording until you get more confidence in using your voice.
During pregnancy, you have many new experiences. Let that newness spark your creativity as you devise your own combinations of sensory experiences for baby. Will it really make her smarter? Perhaps. Will it improve the quality of her life and yours? Definitely! These simple interactions and communications with you or others before birth will give baby (and you) a sense of security and of being loved, even before you hold her in your arms the first time.