Why you Should Interact with Your Unborn Child

Before a baby is born, there’s a lot of preparation and excitement. If you’re expecting a baby, you probably can’t wait until your child is born, so you can begin to interact and bond with each other. The good news is that you don’t have to wait! You can start forming a bond with your baby before he or she is even born.

It may feel silly to have a one-sided conversation with a person inside your body, but research indicates that babies begin to react to sound as early as 24 weeks. Even before that, though, you can interact with your baby by massaging your bump. You can also gently push back against your baby’s kicks, and you may be surprised when you get a nudge or a kick in response!

Interacting with your soon-to-be-born child can help you feel more connected to your baby, and it benefits the baby as well. Research shows that your voice can be calming to your baby, and that babies remember their mothers’ voices after they’re born. What’s more, there’s evidence to suggest that language development begins before birth. Once your baby can hear, there are some great ways to begin to communicate with this new little person.

• Talk to your baby. The conversations you have with your unborn baby are paving the way for his or her social and emotional development, as well as language skills and memory. The sounds babies hear before birth begin to shape their understanding of the world.
• Sing songs and play music. Skip the earphones on the belly, as this can lead to music that’s too loud for your baby. There’s evidence, though, that music can have a big impact on a child’s development, and even babies as young as one day old can detect differences between rhythms. Sometimes, babies are soothed by the lullabies they heard their mothers sing before they were born.
• Read to your little one. Reading to your unborn baby can help stimulate his or her senses and promote brain development. Books that have a clear rhythm and rhyming patterns can be soothing and almost melodic. Reading aloud to your baby before and after he or she is born can be a calming experience for both of you.
• Encourage other family members to bond with the baby, too. Reading to the baby or feeling the kicks can help the baby’s dad feel more connected, and the baby will be able to hear and remember his voice. This goes for older siblings, too, and it’s a great way to give them some “ownership” of the pregnancy.

At the Center for Vasectomy Reversal, we love helping people build their families. Under the direction of Dr. Joshua Green, our team provides state-of-the-art treatment for men who need a reversal of their vasectomy or have other fertility concerns. To learn more, contact us through our website, or call 941-894-6428 for a free consultation.