Babies have fascinating lives in the ᴡᴏᴍʙ that we know quite little about. They can cry, laugh, taste, hear, and do so much more. And they aren’t even born yet.
Naturally curious and continuously growing, babies begin to appreciate sensations very early on. Babies are totally aware of the outside world. You will be very surprised to know the things that your baby can learn when they’re in the ᴡᴏᴍʙ.
Sound and language
Well into the second trimester, your baby should have developed their sense of hearing and they keenly pick up on sounds around them. Since they hear your voice the most frequently and most clearly, they recognize it very well when they are born. This is an excellent thing because this helps them bond with you easily. It is recommended that you speak to your baby and sing to them often during your second and third trimesters as it soothes them even when they are in the womb.
It is not just the sound that they learn to recognize, but they also pick up aspects of your language that distinguishes them from that of others. An excellent study that proved this theory was the study conducted on adopted Dutch adults who had Korean origins. They picked up the Korean language way quicker than people born to Dutch parents. The learning ability for other languages wasn’t very prominent, proving that language is indeed something babies learn in-uter0.
They learn emotions from you
It might seem like just another clichés people spew when they say things like stay happy during your pregnancy and don’t be stressed out. Turns out that there is more fact to this than you realize. Your fetus picks up on things like stress rather effectively and this can affect their adult mental health.
Mothers who suffer from extremely stressful situations and experience P T S D, as a result, tend to have children who are also more prone to P T S D in the future. Focusing on your mental health during pregnancy is very important. If you suffer from clinical depression for a long time and are not undergoing treatment, this can even alter the development of your baby’s brain structure.
They know you
You, their mom, is the only thing they know from the very beginning. Through this nine-month journey, they pick up bits and pieces of information about you from various sources. By the time they are ready to be born, they know what you sound like, how you make them feel emotional, and even what kind of food you like to binge on. Your baby learns to recognize you from within and this is purely evolutionary as infants have extremely low chances of survival in the animal kingdom without direct maternal protection.
They know what you like to eat
This happens towards the later stages of your pregnancy. Your baby starts to absorb and taste the different foods that enter the placenta. Whether this determines their adult preferences in cuisine is subjective but they sure do take a liking to whatever you are fond of when they’re in there. Several studies have demonstrated that when babies get started on solid food, they seem to have a liking for the flavors they were introduced to in the womb.
What can you do to make your babies learn things in the womb?
For this, you need to understand exactly how babies learn things when they’re in the womb. For them to pick up voices and skills, they need to be exposed to it enough time. Repetition is key and this has been evidenced by different studies which displayed that babies used to alarm sounds from when they were in the womb aren’t as startled as others. Another important thing that plays a huge role in helping your baby learn things is association. When you are in a happy mood, if you play music or read nursery rhymes aloud, your baby tends to associate these events with the emotion of happiness. When they are born, you can use these techniques to calm them down and make them happy when they are stressed.
There is no absolute evidence that anything you do while you’re pregnant can enhance your baby’s intelligence. However, simple measures such as listening to music together and eating clean food create discipline and pave a way for bonding with your baby, which is just as good.
