Scientific Discoveries
- Make sure to check out the womb recordings on the Listen page to hear one of a kind recordings from inside the womb, so get ready to hear what your baby hears inside the womb!
AUDIO RECORDINGS
As indistinguishable as words are in the womb, you can see how clear and perfectly replicated music is, along with the intonational patterns of the voice. The pitch, rhythm, texture, and contours of the voice are transmitted almost perfectly to the womb.
As baby’s hearing develops in the last trimester of pregnancy, baby will recognize and bond to your womb song and the tonal patterns of your voice.
To learn about Dr. Brian Satt’s doctoral research question
“Could the human unborn learn and remember, as a newborn, what was learned in utero?”
Listen to and see how Inside the Womb was recorded, and learn more on cultural intrauterine learning which has been around for centuries….
Historical Background….. 1960’s
There was little concentrated research in the area until the late 1960’s, when European fetal audiologists developed an interest in determining if babies could hear before birth. They knew that unborn babies responded to loud sounds outside the womb, but because sound is really a vibration, it was not known if the babies were responding because they heard the sounds or because they sensed the vibrations.
(Turn your stereo up quite loud and put your hand just in front of a speaker to feel how sound vibrates.) After many complex studies, it was established that the unborn child responded not only to vibration but also that sound was being heard. These conclusions were reached based on the many scientific controls used, and the reasoning that because there was fetal, response to high frequency sounds (2000 hertz), which vibrate at a level virtually undetectable to adults, these sounds must have been heard rather than felt.
Learning about Mom’s Voice… 1973
Another fascinating project conducted in 1973 by Drs. William Condon and Louis Sanders of Boston University Medical Center, demonstrated how newborns responded with specific and consistent micro movements (undetectable to the naked eye)
to speech sounds from their mothers.
To examine this possibility further, researchers Drs. Anthony DeCasper and William Fifer at the University of North Carolina, demonstrated that newborns preferred to hear their mother’s voice rather than that of a stranger. In their study, babies could choose to hear either their mother’s or a stranger’s voice, depending on how they sucked on a special pressure sensitive nipple.
The babies showed that they would actively change their sucking in the way that would allow them to hear their mother’s voice. Unfortunately, with all the babies tested, again there had been exposure to the mother’s voice making it impossible to conclude that the babies actually knew their mother’s voice before birth.
These then were the most significant studies available when our research began.
Inside the Womb… 1986
The first recording was made in March of 1986 at the University of Southern California County Women’s Hospital. Alexander Graham Bell’s excitement of discovery could not have been greater than ours! The clarity of external sounds recorded from within the womb was absolutely astounding. It was so good that we first believed something was wrong with the system and that somehow external sounds were being picked up directly, not from the womb. Sounds such as a foot tapping on the floor, a finger being snapped, voices from 15 feet away and even the squeaky wheels of supply carts going down the hallway outside the closed room were clearly audible. Almost anything which could be heard in the room was also heard from the womb. After numerous precautions were taken and tests were conducted (both in the laboratory and the delivery room), it was concluded that the sounds being recorded were coming strictly from the womb. The evidence of sounds in the womb was now indisputable, as demonstrated by both the French and now these recordings. It was apparent how and why unborn babies could hear and learn about music before birth.
The intonational patterns of the voices, were extremely clear: the pitch, rhythm, texture, and contours of the voice were transmitted almost perfectly to the womb. For example, if three people in a room were talking, each of the different voices could be accurately recognized and identified. This can be most clearly understood by listening to music recorded from within the womb (which you will have an opportunity to do in Inside the Womb, if you have not already done so). The exact notes and melodies are clearly present and easily recognizable.
Babies preferred to hear the music that they had been exposed to before birth. At this point, quite a collection of research is indicating that in fact, intrauterine learning can occur and that baby can learn about both voice patterns and some other sounds coming from outside the womb.
The research evidence is now consistent, validated and cross-validated.
Thus far it has been demonstrated that:
- The womb is almost transparent to sounds within the immediate environment of the expectant mother.
- Sounds directed at the abdomen are transmitted more clearly than random sounds.
- Unborn babies have the capability of hearing sounds sometime during the last three months of pregnancy.
- The naturally occurring womb sounds are heard and learned before birth.
- Mother’s voice is experienced and learned before birth.
- Melody presented in the appropriate fashion during pregnancy can be learned and remembered after birth. (Which will be taught to you when you Log In)
It will soon be time to put this valuable information to good use by creating your own Womb Song and teaching your baby.
