Pregnant Women

The vestibular system is the first sensory system to develop in utero. It starts to develop early in the first month even visible from 17 days. Between four to six weeks the vestibular and cochlear systems become differentiated. And at seven weeks, the auditory ossicles start to grow.

At 16 weeks gestation, the middle and inner ears are complete and have an adult size. Its neurological organization is well underway. At 5 1/2 months, the cochlear nerve is myelinated. Myelination to the temporal lobe is started and will be completed at birth.

Active listening starts at 24 weeks. It starts to develop early in the first month. Mature synapses are found between 24 and 28 weeks. Dr Tomatis felt that this early listening played a significant role in inviting the fetus to communicate, develop language, and learn. The journey toward language starts not in the nursery but in the womb, where the fetus is continually bathed in the sounds of its mother’s voice; hence, his mother’s tongue.

Phonemes are the smallest units of sound from which we form words. There are 52 phonemes from which all the worlds’ 6000 languages are formed. Ultrasound studies have shown that by the seventh month in utero, the fetus responds to each of the phonemes in a word spoken by the mother with a specific muscular movement.

Also, the fetus responds immediately to the mother’s voice, in other words, there is no time delay between the sensory input of the mother’s voice and the motor response of the fetus. This is thanks to the bone conduction as it is a fast transmission system.

The perception of the mother’s voice is the very first bond of communication with the world. The quality of this bond will deeply influence our attitude toward life. Babies make ‘one’ with their mother’s feelings and emotions, they feel every muscular tension of the mother, they share the hormonal secretions of the mother’s emotions.

The mother’s voice fills the baby with a sense of well-being and provides a huge amount of stimulation to the brain and the nervous system. Indeed, the function of the ear is not limited to just hearing. The ears give tremendous energy to the brain, controls the posture, and induces a good verticality so that one not only hears, but starts to listen properly.

Here are the following childhood problems associated with chronically high prenatal stress and anxiety:

1. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
2. Childhood Anxiety and Depression
3. Autism or a Developmental Problem on the Autistic Spectrum
4. Motor developmental Delay / Poor Motor Coordination
5. Premature delivery or low birth weight
6. Learning disabilities
7. Auditory processing disorder
8. Sensory integration – vestibule issues
9. Speech and language delay