Benefits of Mother's Voice for Prospective Babies
Like to talk to your fetus or future baby? It turns out that this habit is known to provide benefits to children’s language skills in the future, you know, Ma. Recent research has found that a mother’s voice plays an important role in hearing and language development in premature babies.
Research conducted by Dr. Harvard Medical School. Amir Lahav at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Boston, USA, says that a mother’s voice may be directly related to the development of the auditory cortex, the part of the brain that processes language.
The infants involved in the study were 40, and were born between 25 and 32 weeks of gestation. They are divided into two groups. The first group played three hours using the mother’s recorded voice and heart rate every day for a month. Meanwhile, babies in the second group only listened to hospital sounds regularly.
After 30 days, each baby’s brain was scanned using an ultrasound. The scans found that babies who listened to their mothers’ voices had significantly larger auditory cortex. “We proved that the auditory cortex is better able to adapt to the mother’s voice heard in the womb than to the sound around her. “In theory, exposure to the mother’s voice might provide the newborn with the hearing fitness needed to shape the development of the hearing and language parts,” says Lahav.
Armed with the results of this research, the experts then recommend that prospective mothers be diligent in inviting their future babies to chat and sing since they are still in the womb.
Also read: 5 Steps To Keep Pregnancy Safe
