Talk to your baby in the womb: evidence summary

• Babies are born looking for, and able to participate in, social interaction (Nagy, 2008), but the relevant developments start much earlier – from at least 24 weeks gestation.
• From this time, babies’ hearing systems use parental speech to “tune in” to human speech sounds, and need a quiet environment to do so (Graven & Browne, 2008).  The effects are seen straight after birth, with babies processing parental speech more efficiently (Dehaene-Lambertz et al., 2010, Partenen et al.,  2013).
• Babies from birth will use familiar voices to work out who to attend to (Ockeford et al., 1988) and studies show that newborns can recognise words and spoken passages heard at least six weeks before birth (DeCasper & Spence, 1986).
• Best is a tuneful style of speaking, called “infant directed speech”, that helps infants attend to and make sense of language long before they produce words (e.g., Theissen, Hill & Saffran, 2005).
• The benefits of talking and singing to the baby can start well before birth because it can help parent and child to bond and build attachments that will be helpful for the wellbeing of the whole family  (van den Heuvel et al., 2015; Arnott & Meins, 2008).
• Fortunately, a complex and highly technical literature can be boiled down into a few simple and practical key messages.

• Well before birth, talking and singing to your baby will help them feel safe and loved.
• Babies hear their mothers most clearly, but anyone can talk and sing – Dad’s voice, brother and sisters, grandparents … the baby will love to hear from anyone.
• It is also good for their development as babies use the language they hear in the womb to “tune up” their hearing and get ready for when they will eventually speak.
• Babies are ready to hear you from at least 16 weeks, and perhaps earlier.
• Babies like and attend to tuneful, interesting voices, even before birth.
• It is best to find a quiet time when you and your baby can focus on each other.
• Singing and listening to music will help you and your baby relax and feel in touch with each other. It does not matter what music or songs – if you like it, so will the baby! Don’t spend your money on expensive “baby” music!
• (never put headphones on mum’s tummy – it is too loud for baby!)
• If you feel a bit awkward or embarrassed “talking to the bump” – don’t worry, lots of people do! Find a time when you can be alone and quiet and give it a go.
• If you can’t think of anything to say, just chat about the day – or read a story!

• Arnott, B. & Meins, E. (2008). Continuity in mind-mindedness from pregnancy to the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 31, pp. 647-654.
• Bergman, K., Sarkar, P., Glover, V. & O’Connor, T.G. (2010). Maternal prenatal cortisol and infant cognitive development: Moderation by infant-mother attachment. Biological Psychiatry, 67, pp. 1026-1032.
• Bernier, A., Carlson, S. & Whipple, N. (2010). From external regulation to self-regulation: Early parenting precursors of young children’s executive functioning. Child Development, 81, pp. 326-339.
• Cross, I. (2009). Communicative Development: neonate crying reflects patterns of native-language speech. Current Biology, 19, pp. R1078-79.
• DeCasper, A.J. & Spence, M.J. (1986). Prenatal maternal speech influences newborns’ perception of speech sounds. Infant Behavior and Development, 9, pp. 133-150.
• Dehaene-Lambertz, G., Montavont, A., Jobert, A., Allirol, L., Dubois, J., Hertz-Pannier, L. & Dehaene, S. (2010). Language or music, mother or Mozart?  Structural and environmental influences on infants’ language networks. Brain & Language, 114, pp. 53-65.
• Feldman, R. (2007). Mother-infant synchrony and the development of moral orientation in childhood and adolescence: Direct and indirect mechanisms of developmental continuity.  American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77, pp. 582-597.
• Feldman, R., Magori-Cohen, R., Galili, G., Singer, M. & Louzoun, Y. (2011). Mother and infant coordinate heart rhythms through episodes of interaction synchrony.  Infant Behavior and Development, 34, pp. 569-577.
• Graven, S.N. & Browne, J.V. (2008). Auditory development in the fetus and infant. Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews, 8¸pp. 187-193.
• Hart, B. & Risley, T.R. (1995). Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young Children. Brookes Publishing, Baltimore, MD.
• Kaplan, L.A., Evans, L. & Monk, C. (2008).  Effects of mothers’ prenatal psychiatric status and postnatal caregiving on infant biobehavioral regulation: Can prenatal programming be modified?  Early Human Development, 84, pp. 249-256.
• Meins, E., Munoz Centifanti, L.C., Fernyhough, C. & Fishburn, S. (2013). Maternal mind-mindedness and children’s behavioural difficulties: Mitigating the impact of low socioeconomic status.  Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, pp. 543-553.
• Nagy, E. (2008). Innate intersubjectivity: newborns’ sensitivity to communication disturbance. Developmental Psychology, 44, pp. 1779-1784.
• Ockleford, E.M., Vince, M.A., Layton, C. & Readrer, M.R. (1988). Responses of neonates to parents’ and others’ voices. Early Human Development, 18, pp. 27-36.
• Partenen, E., Kujala, T., Naatanen, R., Liitola, A., SAmbeth, A. & Huotilainen, M. (2013). Learning-induced neural plasticity of speech processing before birth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110, pp. 15145-15150.
• Thiessen, E.D., Hill, E.A. & Saffran, J.R. (2005). Infant-directed speech facilitates word segmentation. Infancy, 7, pp. 53-71.
• Van den Heuvel, M.I., Johannes, M.A., Henrichs, J. & Van den Bergh, B.R.H. (2015). Maternal mindfulness during pregnancy and infant socio-emotional development and temperament: the mediating role of maternal anxiety. Early Human Development, 91, pp. 103-108.