Читать книгу Hatches, Matches and Despatches - Jenny Paschall - Страница 11

WHEN the Japanese obstetrician, Dr Hajime Murooka, investigated the reasons why babies cry, he came to the conclusion that some are just homesick for the womb they have recently left. He implanted a tiny microphone in the uterus of a pregnant woman and recorded the sounds within. When these amplified sounds were played to crying babies, in almost all cases, the crying stopped. One Florida hospital was so impressed with the results that the sounds were piped into a maternity ward. Not only did the babies seem quieter, but the mothers and staff felt calm and drowsy.

SCIENTISTS have found hints of consciousness in seven-month-old foetuses still in the uterus, and have measured brain wave patterns like those during dreaming in eight-month-olds. After twenty-eight weeks in utero, the foetus can hear. By the third trimester, the foetus can respond to sound. Car horns make the foetus jump. Research in Belfast found that the theme song from a popular soap opera, played repeatedly to thirty-week foetuses, made them relaxed. When the same music was played after birth, the babies became more alert.

THERE are a number of electronic devices available in the United States which ensure that pre-school learning begins pre-birth. The Uterine University offers ‘Foetal Teaching Systems’ – cassettes to be worn by the pregnant woman on a body belt, available from a Mr Shannon Thomas of Orlando, Florida. Also available is the ‘Listen Baby’ fabric belt with two speakers and a little microphone, from Roger Hurst of Infant Technology in Denver, and the ‘Pregaphone’, invented by Dr Rene Van de Carr of Santa Barbara, California.