YOUR DEVELOPMENTbroadcasting various sounds into the womb. There’s certainly evidence
that newborns show a preference for the maternal voice and that they
prefer music they were exposed to prenatally (although this usually
disappears within three weeks). A study published in 2009 by Birgit
Mampe at the University of Würzburg even showed that German and
French newborn babies cry in a way that mirrors the intonation of their
native languages. They seem to be mimicking the melody of the voices
they’ve heard in the womb. But while these observations suggest that
foetuses can process sounds in the womb and that this can affect their
postnatal behaviour, there’s very little, if any, evidence that this situation
can be exploited for any kind of educational advantage. Some doctors
have even warned that using commercial products to play loud sounds
into the womb could be harmful.
What we do know for sure is that the pregnant mother’s psychological
state can affect her unborn child. More than a dozen prospective studies
have shown that when a mother suffers from sustained stress during
her pregnancy, this can have long-term consequences for her child, for
example increasing his or her chances of having later attentional prob-
lems. This remains true even when researchers control for the effects
of other relevant factors such as the mother’s post-natal mood. One
possible mechanism is via the stress-hormone cortisol, which can reach
the foetus and affect brain development.
Infancy and childhood
Far from emerging into the world as a blank slate, as the philosopher
John Locke argued in the seventeenth century, babies arrive with a suite
of preferences and a host of predispositions, all of which serve to guide
them in their new and strange circumstances. The baby’s preference for
the mother’s voice, an infatuation with faces, a proclivity for mimicry, and
a wide-eyed attention to what’s going on – all these characteristics and
many others ensure that the newborn bonds with the primary carer and
learns about the world and the other people who inhabit it. These inbuilt
capacities are perhaps most obvious when it comes to the numerous
reflexes seen in newborns, including the Moro reflex, in which the infant
flings out its arms in response to a loud noise or the feeling of falling,
and the cute stepping reflex, in which the sensation of the ground on the
soles of the feet causes the infant to step repeatedly as if trying to walk.
Of course it’s frustratingly difficult to research what it’s like to be
a baby or young child, because they can’t talk and we remember little