Reading To The Baby During Pregnancy, Is It Beneficial?
In the first weeks of pregnancy your baby has only heard your heartbeat, but from the 23rd week of gestation, his little ears are fully formed, so he will have the possibility to hear what is happening outside the uterus.
Reading to the baby is one of the excellent tools for its early stimulation that will help it comprehensively and especially in the development of its intelligence.
Does it help?
The results of an analysis carried out by Johns Hopkins University in 2008 indicated that a baby in the last six weeks of gestation responds with a slight and positive change in heart rate when mother performs a reading aloud, speaks or sings.
There are different forms of auditory stimulation during pregnancy in addition to reading, such as playing pleasant background music, singing and having other people in the family speak to you so that you recognize different voices.
If you want to achieve better results, you can combine reading with gentle massages on your belly so that you activate a couple of senses simultaneously.
Benefits of reading to baby during pregnancy
When you read to your unborn baby, you will be able to notice the effects of the stimulation by the way it interacts through their movements.
Here are some of the most important benefits of reading to your baby during pregnancy:
• Once he is born some words will sound familiar and it will be much easier to build up his vocabulary.
• Develops their retention and facilitates their learning in the future.
• Thanks to auditory intrauterine stimulation, once your baby is born he will be able to recognize some of the familiar voices and will demonstrate this by performing some gestures and movements.
• You will learn to distinguish the different modulations of the voice, strong and soft tones.
• It can be beneficial to reassure him, especially and especially the whisper of mom.
• Useful and advantageous in the formation of the bond between mother and child or other relatives in their environment.
• It is an excellent option for the father figure to become even more involved during pregnancy.
• Some studies show that the habit of reading could be maintained over time.
• If when reading you usually do it with instrumental music, it is highly probable that your baby will develop tastes and inclinations towards musical instruments and reading.
Readings for your baby
Regular reading has a very positive influence on your unborn baby, ” if you like what you read” you could transmit it to your little one, so in the future both of you could enjoy and achieve an excellent connection through this wonderful option of learning.
When selecting the topics, it is preferable that you opt for readings with children’s themes, since they have a simple and specially structured vocabulary for the understanding of the little ones.
How often should we read to the baby?
Since you know all the benefits that reading provides to your baby, it is appropriate that you establish it as a routine throughout the gestation period.
The time you take to do the reading must be of quality, too many hours a day do not guarantee the effectiveness of the stimulus, 30 to 45 minutes a day will be perfect to dedicate a good affective stimulus to the baby.
When reading is part of a routine, the baby will easily be able to recognize your voice in addition to executing an immediate and habitual connection between the two, this moment must be respected since it means intimacy and love in their relationship.
Remember to vary the readings, select different places to carry it out and try to identify the right time to do it.
It is important that we are relaxed and that your baby is awake for you to carry out the activity (pregnant babies also have their rest routines that must be respected).
Thanks to the stimulation through reading, our baby could develop different abilities and capacities in the future. L not only reading is an important tool to enrich the knowledge and soul, can also enhance some attitudes in the area of cognitive language and socio-emotional.
