The Deseret News – Herb Scribner
“Your baby, even when in the womb, has preferences. A new study published in PLOS One found that fetuses move and respond more when their mothers touch their own stomachs than when they talk to the babies from outside the womb, according to Time magazine. Specifically, researchers found that when mothers touched their stomachs fetuses showed “more arm, head, and mouth movements than when the women did nothing or when they spoke to the baby,” Time reported. “Although it is speculative to suggest, it might well be that the increases in arm movements in response to maternal touch are also directed responses towards the source of the stimulation,” the study’s authors wrote. To find this, researchers brought 23 healthy pregnant women into a dark room and had them all practice three different behaviors. One behavior had the mothers rub their abdomen, another had the mothers talk to their babies and the last had mothers keep their arms at their side. The researchers tracked the fetuses’ movements with sonography. The first behavior had the most responses from the fetuses.”(more)