Sounds of the Prenatal World

The maternal heartbeat is the sound the unborn child hears 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the entire pregnancy. The sound of the maternal pulse and the blood flowing through the placenta, as loud as 95 decibels.

This is Lesson1 of the BabyPlus curriculum. The sound is simple and not significantly different from the sounds the unborn child hears every minute of every day, but the child detects the difference. And she hears it clearly; it is not muffled and it is not too complex. The child begins to discriminate, that is, to employ the most basic learning principle at this very early age.

The pattern of Lesson 2 is just slightly different from that of Sequence I. But the child hears the difference; now he has learned not only to discriminate the sounds of Lesosn1 from that of the normal environment, but he has also heard a sound that he learns is different from those he heard before.

The pattern of Lesson 4 has increased significantly in speed, and the pattern is more complex and the subtle variations in tone are again audible to the child. BabyPlus may sound repetitive and basic to the adult ear, but to the unborn child it is a logical and instructive progression. By this time the child will often begin to move around as soon as the lesson is begun. This is a great time for bonding.

In lesson 8, again there is an increase in speed. This increase in speed has been gradual over each of the Sequences. The pattern has also significantly increased in complexity.

Watch a 4D ultrasound of a BabyPlus fetus at 30 weeks of pregnancy. She is stimulated by hearing the voice of her father who bends over the mum's tummy and is talking to her during the ultrasound.