A new study says babies can hear sounds while in their mom's womb and recognize the words even after birth.
Most interestingly, researchers from the University of Helsinki in Finland also found that these first sounds played a crucial role in shaping the baby's brains, NBC News reported.
The study included 33 pregnant women. At week 29, 17 of the participants started listening to a series of made-up words like "tatata" or "tatota" recorded in a CD. The words were repeated 50 to 71 times daily, in different ways and different pitches. The exercise was continued until the women gave birth.
After birth, all of the newborn babies underwent tests related to normal hearing. Researchers monitored the babies' response to the words through an EEG (electroencephalograph) brain scan.
Babies of mothers who listened to the made-up words "showed an enhanced reaction to the specific words," than the babies, whose mothers didn't, study co-author Minna Huotilainen, toldHealth Day. "They were able to process the word better, and also they were able to detect changes in the word better."
The authors urged couples who are expecting a baby to watch their language for enabling a healthy growth and development of the baby in the womb.
"Be aware that the fetus can hear something from the outside world and learn from it," Huotilainen, a docent at the University of Helsinki's Finnish Center of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research aid, said "Speak during your pregnancy. You can speak to other people or to your fetus if you like."
The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A study published in the journal Acta Paediatrica, early this year showed that the language learning process of a child actually starts two months before birth. Researchers found that the babies were able to distinguish between the sounds that they heard while in their mother's womb and new ones.
