In similar fashion, ancient Hindus believed that intrauterine learning occurred through “thought sharing”, whereby the expectant mother’s thoughts could be passed on to her unborn baby. To enhance the concept, they built special “thought” rooms and designated exclusive intrauterine teachers for the nobility and the wealthy. These teachers would impart complicated thoughts to the expectant mother in ways that she could understand. It was believed these thoughts would then be known by the unborn. I discovered a wealth of anecdotal stories:

As conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Boris Brott, immediately knew the composition of a musical piece he had never heard before, discovering later that it was a piece practiced and played by his pregnant mother, a cellist, yet never played again after his birth;

As conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Boris Brott, immediately knew the composition of a musical piece he had never heard before, discovering later that it was a piece practiced and played by his pregnant mother, a cellist, yet never played again after his birth; Song writer Carley Simon and her sisters, all entertainers, were exposed to music and dance during their lives in the womb; A newborn consistently calmed and slept upon hearing “Born to Run”, which had been played incessantly during his mother’s pregnancy; The highly publicized Susedik family, with four young girls, all of whom test in the genius IQ range which the parents attribute, in great part, to their intrauterine learning experiences.

• Song writer Carley Simon and her sisters, all entertainers, were exposed to music and dance during their lives in the womb;
• A newborn consistently calmed and slept upon hearing “Born to Run”, which had been played incessantly during his mother’s pregnancy;
• The highly publicized Susedik family, with four young girls, all of whom test in the genius IQ range which the parents attribute, in great part, to their intrauterine learning experiences.
• While interesting, these are merely stories with no scientific validation. As with all such tales, it is impossible to separate the influence of prenatal and postnatal experiences.
• I set out to determine, scientifically, if unborn babies could actually learn a lullaby sung by their mothers.
• Before I was ready to ask pregnant women to sing to their unborn babies, over a year was consumed with preliminary investigation, equipment development and pilot research with Dr. Jeff Phelan at County-University of Southern California Women’s Hospital. After the birth of one of these babies, testing was conducted within the first week, (a more in-depth description of this research appears in “Research History”). When the testing was completed, it was evident that these babies had learned the music before birth, recognized the music after birth, and preferred to hear it over another piece of music.
• Having been a skeptic, I now had a strong belief that unborn babies heard sounds produced outside the womb and were capable of learning.
• With this knowledge, my curiosity was really piqued, so I proposed to Dr. Phelan that we attempt to actually record, from within the womb, what sounds babies were hearing. The development of a completely safe recording system was difficult and time consuming.
• Over a year passed before we were ready to attempt our first recording.
• During labor, after the expectant mother’s amniotic sack had ruptured, an one quarter inch condenser microphone was inserted vaginally into the uterus. With our recorders and earphones in place, we were amazed at the clarity with which we could hear almost everything going on in the room. . . and even sounds out in the hallway were easily detectable. Based on what we heard, we could fully appreciate how and why unborn babies learned and recognized sounds after they were born. The mystery was slowly unraveling.
• If you haven’t already listened to Inside the Womb, here are the remarkable sounds from the world of the womb:
• Inside the Womb Audio.