Pregnancy is an exciting time for a woman and her family. She will meet with a doctor or midwife to monitor the baby’s heartbeat and look at the growing fetus via ultrasound. Some babies are born hard of hearing, while others are born blind. New research shows that they may be born with the sense to know when their mamma is pregnant. This sixth-sense is not just limited to humans.
How can you know for sure your baby senses you’re pregnant?
Babies are born with an innate ability to sense the world around them. While this skill will certainly grow in strength as they develop, you can already see some of their earliest reactions to your pregnancy.
When you’re pregnant, your body produces hormones that tell your baby that it’s time to grow up and come out into the world. Those same hormones also signal a change in moods for many expectant mothers. Some women feel happy, excited and calm during pregnancy; others may experience a range of emotions from happiness to anxiety or sadness.
Your baby can sense these changes in moods too. He or she knows when you’re feeling good and when you’re feeling bad — even before birth! As an expectant mother, you’re probably feeling more than a little anxious about the new member of your family. And even If your baby can’t communicate with words yet, his or her behavior will tell you a lot about how he or she is feeling.
Babies sense and respond to Mama’s pregnancy.
As an expectant mom, you may have noticed a change in your baby’s behavior as you approach your due date. Some babies seem to know when Mom is pregnant, and others seem oblivious.
Some babies are so tuned in that they even seem to sense the day their mother conceived — or at least that’s what some studies suggest.
How can you know for sure your baby senses you’re pregnant? Here’s what the research says:
- Babies can tell when their moms are pregnant before they’re born
- One 2014 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that children born to mothers who had undergone IVF knew the moment the embryos were placed into their mother’s womb. They could sense this through changes in hormones and chemicals present in the amniotic fluid surrounding them.
- Another study published in PLOS One found that infants born via IVF were able to detect whether their sibling was conceived using IVF or naturally two months before birth — and they showed more positive reactions to their siblings conceived naturally than those conceived through IVF.
A baby can sense when the mother is pregnant, quite early on in her pregnancy.
A baby can sense when the mother is pregnant, quite early on in her pregnancy.
The mother’s body starts to change as soon as she conceives. Her heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature all rise slightly, while her breasts become swollen and tender. The hormones released during pregnancy cause her to urinate more frequently and she may feel nauseous.
These are just some of the changes that a baby can sense when their mother becomes pregnant. In fact, a study by Dr. Ruth Feldman from Bar-Ilan University in Israel showed that babies can detect hormonal changes in their mothers almost from the moment of conception.
The study found that babies could detect these changes from as early as eight weeks into the pregnancy (before many women even know they’re pregnant).
The subtle scent of a mother’s pregnancy hormones may be detected by babies several months before birth, new research shows.
Pregnancy is a time of great emotional and physical change for women. But it’s not just mothers who undergo dramatic transformations during pregnancy: New research suggests that babies can sense when their mothers are expecting, even before birth.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, shows that newborns can detect subtle changes in the scent of their mother’s body as she prepares to give birth. These scents may actually help prepare babies for life outside the womb by priming them to seek out the breast and suckle.
“This study suggests that human newborns are primed to recognize their own mother’s body odor,” said lead author Dr. Yousef Tzischinsky, an assistant professor of psychology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. “This mechanism may be important for breastfeeding success.”
As an expectant mother, you’re probably feeling more than a little anxious about the new member of your family.
As an expectant mother, you’re probably feeling more than a little anxious about the new member of your family. And if you’re like most women, you’ll want to know as much about pregnancy and childbirth as possible.
You may have heard that babies can sense when their mothers are pregnant — even before they’re born. Is this true?
The answer is yes. Researchers have found that babies as young as 3 months old can tell when they’re going to have a sibling on the way.
Not only do they sense the changes in their mother’s body, but they may also be able to feel the baby moving inside her.
Research shows that many pregnant women don’t realize how active their babies are during pregnancy. Some mothers say that their babies don’t move much or at all until right before birth. But this isn’t true for all pregnancies — some babies are very active inside their mothers’ wombs from the beginning.
Conclusion
Babies develop at different paces, but there are some general milestones that most babies hit during their first 12 months on this earth. And identifying these milestones can help both you and your child’s pediatrician gauge his or her development.
