The Babypod is a small speaker women insert into their, well, you know, that emits low volume (54 decibels) music.
Babies learn to speak in response to sound stimuli, especially melodic sound. Babypod is a device that stimulates before birth through music. With Babypod, babies learn to vocalize from the womb.
A whole universe of sounds for your baby
Babypod emerged within an important research line carried out by Institut Marquès on the effects of music from the beginning of life. Music has many benefits for the human brain, including acting as a stimulus for learning and it plays an important role in the sphere of social comunication. Stimulating babies through music in their first months of life has positive effects on brain development; if this is so, why not give your baby the benefits of music starting before birth?
In the first scientific study, the Institut Marquès team applied music to embryo incubators and proved how music improves IVF..
Later on, when researching foetal hearing and to more effectively deliver sound inside the uterus, a small vaginal device was designed. The result was a surprising discovery: babies are stimulated and respond by moving their mouths and tongues.
Having evidenced the benefits of music and the importance of neurological stimulation in unborn babies, Babypod, was created, a medical discovery that all pregnant women and all future children should enjoy.
Can babies hear before birth?
Hearing is the first sense developed in the embryo. After only sixteen weeks the hearing system of an unborn baby is fully developed but, can babies hear? Until now babies were believed to perceive sounds as of week twenty-six. However, a recent study by Institut Marquès has shown that they can hear from week sixteen and, moreover, the study revealed that babies react to musical stimuli.
Sound environment in the womb, what do babies hear from inside the belly?
At sixteen weeks babies begin to hear different sounds; where do they come from? On the one hand, from inside their mother – the beating of her heart, her breathing, her voice-, and on the other hand, from the outside and things she is doing. However, the baby is isolated from external sounds that are muffled, at about 30 decibels, a volume like a whisper. In addition, the sounds are very repetitive, so babies get used to them quickly and are not kept from sleeping. While inside the belly, the baby can perceive and remember differences in the rhythm and intonation of the mother’s voice, but all the sounds are very distorted and muffled. Babies cannot hear external sounds or the mother’s voice as emitted.
How do babies hear outside sounds?
The baby perceives extremely muffled sounds, why?
The uterus is a place protected from the exterior, and it is the mother’s body that carries out this protecting role through multiple layers of soft tissue. These attenuate the intensity of sound and distort it in its journey to the uterus; it’s similar to what happens when you hear a conversation in the next-door room without catching everything that is said.
If the sound is generated at the level of the mother’s abdomen –using headphones for example- part of the sound is scattered in the environment, and part is absorbed by the layers of soft tissue –the abdominal wall and uterus- so the baby will hear just a murmur, similar to what happens when placing a pillow over a loudspeaker; it is also similar to the background sounds in a forest.
Can babies perceive sounds like we do?
This is solely possible via the vagina.
The vagina is a closed space, so sound is not dispersed in the environment. In addition, there are less soft tissue layers separating the baby from the sound target, only the vaginal and uterine walls. By placing a speaker inside the vagina, we overcome the barrier formed by the abdominal wall and the baby can hear sounds with almost as much intensity and clarity as when emitted.
What do babies hear when we play music through headphones at the mother’s belly?
To carry out the scientific study, music was played over the mother’s abdomen through a headset. The volume of the music for this test was set at 98.6 decibels, a rather high intensity, equivalent to the sound of a lawn mower. However, babies showed no reaction to the music
By contrast, they did respond to music with Babypod, emitted at an intensity of 54 decibels, equivalent to the volume of a conversation in a hushed tone or ambient music. Only from within can we stimulate babies; music provokes and encourages their response.
Music as a stimulus for unborn babies
Music stimulates major brain structures in human beings, it improves their neurological development. Therefore, paediatricians recommend that children grow up in environments with many stimuli, including music; What if you could start now? Thanks to Babypod children can begin to enjoy the pleasure of music before birth.
Moreover, music stimulates comunication and language, the form of expression and the coordination of movements. All this is necessary to live in society.
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