Читать книгу Zero to Five - Tracy Cutchlow - Страница 8

Peace and quiet, please (at first)

Can you turn your embryo into a genius in the womb?

No. For decades, product manufacturers have preyed on vulnerable parents-to-be: give birth to a smarter, calmer, more attentive baby who can already spell!

It started in 1979 with Prenatal University, a twice-daily program in which you pressed your pregnant belly while teaching your fetus words such as “pat,” “shake,” and “rub.” Then came the Pregaphone, which amplified your voice into the womb so that you could communicate even earlier with baby. You placed a plastic funnel on your belly and spoke into a mouthpiece connected via a tube. Today’s descendants include a belt that emits heartbeat sounds. You wrap it around your pregnant belly for two hours a day to train your fetus to discriminate sounds. The claim: it will “enrich your unborn child’s forming cognitive, empathic, and creative skills.”

Lured into the marketing copy, you can’t help but wonder, “What if it really does work?” Save your money. No commercial product that claims to boost the braininess of a developing fetus has ever been scientifically proven to do anything useful.

Baby’s needs are simple

Perhaps baby is too busy to bother with any interference from products. In the first half of pregnancy, baby starts creating her first brain cells—neurons—at the crazy rapid rate of 250,000 per minute. In the second half of pregnancy, the brain begins connecting those neurons, creating 700 synapses per second in the first few years of life. All baby needs at this stage is the nourishment you provide by eating well, exercising, and reducing your stress.