Music is an amazing effect on all of us. It soothes our emotions, it heals our pain, it de-stresses our life and it relaxes our body and mind. When music has such a huge impact on us adults, how much can it help the children? And if it can help the children, can it help the babies who are inside the womb as well? Multiple research studies have been conducted to find out the impact of music on babies in the womb, though they are still in their infancy. While there are no concrete evidence on how much help music does, expecting mommies around the world still ensure the babies hear music well before their birth. Why? Here are the four ways listening to music during pregnancy can have a wonderful effect on you and the baby.

4 Wonderful Effects Of Listening To Music During Pregnancy

1. Music can improve the unborn baby’s sense of hearing: While your baby is too small to tap his legs to music or even to understand music, he will definitely “feel” the music when you hear it using a head phone. The vibrations the baby hear when you listen to music is said to improve his auditory sense, along with his concentration skills. If you listen to music regularly, then babies will start concentrating to it better, gradually improving his auditory senses. However, you need not make the baby hear through a headphone fixed to the belly, as the sound could be over -stimulating for the baby. If you are listening to music and are getting relaxed, the ‘feel good’ hormones get passed on to the baby and that helps calm him or her
2. Music can improve the unborn baby’s reflexes: As we said before, the child cannot really hear the music the way you do. He can only sense the vibrations that reach him from the sound waves you hear when you listen to music using a head phone (when it is coming from a TV also speaker, the effect is lesser). But very often, pregnant to-be-mommies swear that they sense their babies move
   when they start listening to music. This is the babies reacting to the vibrations they sense. Similarly, when you listen to music, your unborn child also will react, which will improve his reflexes – the power to react to external stimuli. This so happens because amniotic fluid is a good conductor
3. Music can be the bridge between life inside the womb and life outside in the world: Research suggests that babies after birth remember the sounds they listened to when they were inside the womb. This is the reason many doctors advise pregnant ladies to talk to the child during pregnancy, in order to bond with the unborn baby The same principle applies to music as well. If you listen to a particular set of songs continuously during your pregnancy, then after birth, hearing the same songs will calm your baby. Like a lullaby. When your baby struggles to cope with the new environment around him, a soothing music from the past will relax him
4. Music can even shape your child’s personality: Again, there are no direct linkages between music and your child’s nature. But some do believe that if you listen to calming and soothing music, your child will have a calm personality and if you listen to loud and heavy music, your child will have an aggressive personality. What you think and feel is said to be responsible for your baby’s personality

Will Playing Music To My Baby Make Her Smarter?

There is no research that proves that playing music can make your baby smarter, so do not go overboard with it. The studies that claim that exposure to music can make your child smarter actually did their research on older kids. This claim has come into being because researchers believed that if music had such great effect on toddlers and grown up children, then it could also work wonders on fetuses. However, the research is still in infancy, and while there is no harm in playing music to your unborn baby, resting on these notions is not a good idea.

What Else Do You Need To Know About Listening To Music During Pregnancy?

• Babies do not hear music the same as you do. So it might help if you play music on your stereo. The placenta will pick up the sound waves and take them to your baby
• Do not play the music too loud to ensure it reaches the child’s ear. A low soothing volume is good enough. Let us not make the tiny baby anxious!
• Do not keep listening to music all the time
  • If you do use headphone, do not place the headphones on the tummy for not more than 2 hours in a day. Do not use up the 2 hours in one go. Spread it out across the day
  • Playing a soft lounge music on speakers throughout the day in the house is okay
  • Constantly listening to music might break your baby’s sleep schedule, so pick a time when you know baby is awake and kicking
• Type of music you want to listen to depends on you – mommies usually pick soothing instrumental music, religious hymns chanting, classical music and even favorite movie songs. All these are okay. You might want to avoid loud and heavy music genres like rock
• Please remember the objective of making the unborn baby listen to music is NOT to make them a musician when they grow up. The idea is to soothe and bond with them
• Many people make their babies listen to Einstein audio and Beethoven’s symphonies in the hope that their babies come out smarter. There is no evidence behind this belief

The bottom-line here is that a relaxed, happy, stress free mother gives birth to a happy baby. To this effect, music plays an indirect role. Music can perk you up, soothe you, relax you and make you sleep. As with everything, moderation is the key. And if at all tomorrow you do give birth to a musician, all the more better!
All the best!