![]() It’s possible, so we need to be mindful of the potential for harm. Can music be too loud for a baby in the womb? So babies might be capable of hearing music - or at least some fragmentary elements of music - that also fall into this range.īut for better listening abilities, we have to wait until babies are bit older - around 30 weeks or more.įor instance, most babies don’t respond to tones as high as 1000 Hz (which is just a smidge lower than “high C” on a keyboard) until at least 30 weeks gestation (Hepper and Shahidullah 1994).Īnd when researchers presented fetuses with an entire lullaby - as opposed to a few, isolated tones - they found evidence that babies begin paying more attention to music at around 33 weeks gestation (Kisilevsky et al 2004). ![]() We know that babies can hear some sounds during the second trimester of pregnancy, and by 25 weeks gestation, approximately half of all fetuses are responsive to tones in the range of 100-500 Hz - a range that overlaps with adult speech (Hepper and Shahidullah 1994). So it isn’t a straightforward question to answer - the age at which your baby will be able to hear your favorite tune. And of course sounds get muffled in the womb - especially sounds at higher frequencies. It happens in steps, and every baby develops at his or her own pace. At what point during pregnancy can a baby hear music in the womb?Ī baby’s sense of hearing doesn’t go “online” all at once. And it should encourage parents to share musical experiences with their babies - both before and after pregnancy. They also warn mothers-to-be to avoid exposing their bodies to loud, deep, booming noises, or to decibel levels that pose a risk to their own hearing.īut the research helps us appreciate that our babies are engaging with the world long before birth. There’s no evidence for that, and in fact experts urge parents to avoid certain kinds of music exposure.įor example, they advise against placing earphones or other audio devices directly onto a pregnant woman’s belly. Moreover, if a late-term fetus “overhears” the same melody again and again, it will likely recognize this tune later - when it hears the music as a newborn.ĭo such prenatal experiences make children smarter? Should parents make a special effort to expose their babies to music through high-tech gadgets? In the last trimester of pregnancy, babies become increasingly capable of hearing a range of musical tones, and studies confirm that babies react - in the womb - to the sounds they hear. Music in the womb? It’s become an almost cartoonish cliché of modern pregnancy - a pregnant mother-to-be playing tunes for her unborn baby.īut is this really a thing? Do fetuses actually respond to music? Will they remember any of it later? The short answer is yes. © 2021 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved
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