Little Benny is lying in his crib. Occasionally, he moves his
head, hands or legs and opens his eyes and appears to look
around. Benny is learning about himself and his
environment.
We assume that this process began as soon as Benny was born,
as soon as he arrived in our world. However, research is
showing that Benny began learning about this world many
months before he was born! Ultrasound pictures and other
monitoring devices are being used to investigate the
development of the unborn baby from the very earliest
stages.
The first heartbeats come when the baby is about three weeks
old (gestational age -- g.a.), even before the various valves
and chambers of the heart have been formed.
By five weeks g.a., the cerebral cortex is already being
developed. The cortex is the site of most of the advanced
human sensory and behavioral processing.
When the little baby is only six weeks old g.a., he begins to
move his head, arms and legs and by ten weeks g.a., he is
coordinating movement between different parts of the body.
By eight weeks g.a., the unborn baby is sensitive to being
touched and will try to move away from a slight touch on his
cheek. A nine-week g.a. baby can react to a loud noise and
even hiccup. A week later, he is already stretching himself
and opening his jaw and swallowing.
When the mother of a ten or fifteen week old g.a. baby laughs
or coughs, a second or two later the baby reacts.
The unborn baby's taste buds are already developed by 13-15
weeks g.a. and because he is swallowing amniotic fluid, he
can taste many of the flavors of foods that the mother eats.
By sixteen weeks, he can suck his thumb.
Research shows that the unborn baby can hear his mother's
voice and is calmed by it. By sixteen weeks g.a., he reacts
to sound, even before the ears are fully developed.
The vision of the unborn baby cannot be easily investigated
but prematurely born babies only twenty- eight weeks g.a.
exhibit remarkable focusing and tracking abilities.
The sight of a little twenty-week g.a. fascinates
researchers: baby feeling all over himself and searching with
his hands. They have even seen unborn twins holding hands.
Though babies' eyes are still closed, researchers have seen a
little baby cringe away from a needle inserted into the
uterus or even turn to attack it with his little fist.
At 32 weeks, the baby spends 90-95% of his time sleeping.
Sometimes, the sleep is deep but at other times, the unborn
baby's eyes perform dream-like back- and-forth movements like
an adult. Whether awake or asleep, the baby moves about 50
times an hour.
Even when babies are very young, investigators can detect
`personality traits.' These might also be affected by
hormones that the mother produces and which are passed on to
the baby. So a mother who is stressed and producing stress
hormones will pass these hormones on to the baby and cause
him to also exhibit stress behavior. This would explain why
highly-stressed working mothers tend to give birth to
irritable babies.
There are those who suggest trying to develop the unborn
babies' intelligence even before birth by irradiating the
area of the womb with sounds and intense light, but others
warn against trying to interfere with natural development.
The best preparation seems to be for the mother to be calm,
eat well, rest well and daven well.
