What Babys Are Already Learning While in Your Womb
Dear Parents (or soon to be Parents),
A baby's development does not just start with birth, but starts so much earlier. All the time while in utero your little one is already taking it all in and absorbing and learning some critical skills that will make life so much easier. Below we have listed some fascinating facts about prenatal learning of your baby.
Hearing: By week 23 in utero, your little one will already be able to hear sounds (singing, music and voices) outside of a mother's body. That also means that from week 30 in utero onwards hearing cells can be damaged by prolonged loud nose, so always be careful.
Vision: From week 32 in utero onwards, electrical impulses can pass along the baby's optic nerve allowing some vision like dark vs. light. Some researchers thus believe it is important to spend as much time outside in these weeks. At birth a baby's vision is primitive at best, only allowing it to see about 30cm far or about as far that it is to a mother's breast.
Sense of Smell & Taste: At 28 weeks in utero, a fetus can smell e.g. the food a mother is eating. Taste sensations are experiences in utero via the amniotic fluid and already allow a baby to taste from week 21 onwards. Some researchers believe that these senses may already start to be in force at 3-4 moths in utero.
Tactile Sense: At 5 weeks only the embryo is sensitive around the mouth and nose. By week 12, the entire body is able to feel. The only exception here are the back and very top of the head which only become sensitive post birth (that way less sensation and pressure at natural birth).
Vestibular Sense: By week 10 in utero, the baby moves parts of the body in response to internal stimulation and already has a sense of balance and motion.
Communication: Starting at 5 months in utero, babies start to communicate by responding to impulses from the outside world. At 7 months in utero, babies will have developed a basic rudimentary understanding of language and will show a language preference for their native tongue.
A video that we found fascinating and that provides many additional interesting insights you can find here.
Not surprisingly, learning will only accelerate once born, so it is critical to ideally support your little one not only while in utero but to continue to do so in the initial weeks and month post birth. Our Genius Boxes are a great way to do just that!
All the best & rock on!
Erika & the Little Genius team