Reading books while pregnant

The Benefits of Reading to Baby in Womb — Green Child Magazine

You may think the only benefits of reading to your unborn baby are the relaxation and bonding you feel. But science shows that reading to baby in the womb helps develop early language learning. In small children, reading is proven to help with language development and increased word recognition. Reading can also create a positive bond between parent and child. It can provide a great wind-down before bedtime and spark an early interest in learning.

Talking, singing, or playing music to a baby while in the womb comes naturally to many expecting mothers. They instinctively know the importance of early bonding. And once baby gets active, it becomes more real that you’re walking around with another human constantly with you.

This innate bonding can also transfer into a relaxing ritual – reading to your baby in the womb. And as it turns out, there are numerous benefits to reading to a child in utero – both for baby and the parents.

Parent-Baby Bonding and Lower Maternal Stress

Many studies show that reading (particularly from the mother’s relaxing voice) causes a baby’s fetal heart rate to lower. Also, the bond that is experienced between parent and child later on can start to occur while Mama or Papa read to the baby prenatally. It’s also a great way to kickstart secure attachment in infants.

Participation in reading is also a great way for other family members to connect with the baby. An older child can read or talk about her favorite parts of the story. And the new baby can start to learn their sibling’s voice.

We can be very focused on the preparation for the coming of new life and the general health needs of the mother and baby. However, early attention through reading to your unborn baby builds a wonderful foundation to solid future relationships.

Reading to your unborn baby also helps you slow down, relax, and experience the fun moments of early parenting. You’ll enjoy the sweetness and simple lessons (which can be great at grounding adults in times of stress) of a good picture book.

Will reading to your baby in the womb make them smarter?

Legend has it that cellist Pablo Casals started to sight-read a piece of music and soon realized he knew what was coming next, without reading it. He later learned that his cellist mother had rehearsed the piece daily in the later stages of her pregnancy.

Talking, reading, and playing a variety of music can help stimulate baby’s senses and improve her brain development, according to Dr. Michael Roizen. “Exposure to different sounds and scenes is essentially what helps establish connections from one set of neurons—the nerve cells of the brain—to another. This is how we all learn.”

Related: Add the Book Box for Kids to Your Amazon Prime Membership

A study at the University of Oregon found when pregnant mothers were given a recording that included a made-up word to play near the end of pregnancy, the babies were able to recognize the word and its variations after they were born (source).

They could discern this by neural signals emitted by the babies that showed they recognized the pitch and vowel changes in the fake word. The babies who heard the recording most frequently displayed the strongest response, suggesting that infant language learning begins in utero.

When should you start reading to your baby in the womb?

At about six months along, a baby is already quite familiar with the sounds of the womb, from the mother’s heartbeat to digestive sounds. From outside the womb, sounds are extremely clear, although about 10 decibels lower.

From week 25 forward, a baby’s primary connection and information to the outside world comes in the form of sound. By this point, the soothing, rhythmic sounds of a simple story should be quite audible, although the tones and cadences of the voice are more important than enunciation of the actual words.

Books to Read to Your Baby in the Womb

Which books should you read? It’s completely up to you!

Your favorite classics, mysteries, sci-fi, love stories – whatever you enjoy and feel comfortable reading aloud. If you want to go ahead and start practicing for reading with your new baby, use the baby and kids books you’re likely getting from baby showers or gifts. Particularly, books with a clear rhythm and rhyme patterns provide a soothing, almost melodic listening experience.

If you have another child, let them read aloud (or just tell stories if they can’t read). It’s great practice for them and an early bonding experience with their new sibling.

Another calming way to involve older children – and to encourage mindfulness in your whole family – is to read a guided meditation script before nap or bedtime.

Here are some great books you can buy or get from your library:

Anything from Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle to Goodnight Moon and Guess How Much I Love You  are fun and sweet stories for little ones. Board books make a fun addition to your baby registry.

Predictable books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? or Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (both by Bill Martin, Jr. ) are also perfect for prenatal reading, as well as classic repetitive nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

But, don’t feel that you need to stick to the classics when choosing books to read to your baby in the womb.

This is your chance to experiment with newer characters and authors. Especially if you haven’t read a picture book since your own childhood.

There are fabulous modern stories that are equally enjoyable to parents as they are babies. Some newer favorites include Mo Willems (while his characters, “Pigeon” and “Elephant and Piggie,” are particularly popular, try some of his others for a hilarious surprise), the Llama Llama series by Anna Dewdney, and any irreverent book by Jon Klassen.

Whatever text you choose to read to your unborn baby—funny or classically heartwarming—it’s the process of prenatal reading that matters. The experience of reading will surely benefit your little one. Even if just through the time spent together and the soothing rhythm of familiar voices.

It also provides some intentional calm time and peace for the parents and siblings. And you’ll be sure to set a book-loving precedent that will last into your baby’s life.

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Megan McCoy Dellecese

Megan McCoy Dellecese is a school librarian and writer, as well as a wife and mother of three. She enjoys blogging about living an imperfectly simple, green life with her family at Meg Acts Out and hopes to publish her first children's book this year.

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Do Reading Books During Pregnancy Make The Child Smart?

Reading is one of the most vital talents a child needs in order to be successful in life. Books are one’s best friend and the early we inculcate this habit, it is excellent for the child.  Do Reading Books During Pregnancy Make The Child Smart?

Well, Reading, while pregnant not only increases the knowledge but also helps in making the bond between the mother and the baby stronger. It also triggers better concentration, a good attention span, distressing the mother of her tensions, resulting in a smarter baby.

In This Article

• Why Is It Important To Read To Your Baby?
• When should I Start Reading While Pregnant?
• Benefits of Reading to a Baby in The Womb?

Why Is It Important To Read To Your Baby?

As stated earlier reading comes with its own pack of benefits for a baby.  However, a few points can be taken to notice which help in illustrating the importance of reading to a baby. Given below are a few of them:

• Reading to a baby helps in grasping the rare words thus increasing vocabulary.
• Reading helps foster a good attention span and also in memorizing.
• Babies can easily understand the meanings of the word.
• With reading, the closeness between the mother and the baby increases.
• Babies already get used to reading and this love helps them with their learning in the future.
• Reading at an early age helps in brain development and speech improvement.
• When rhymes and stories are read to a baby in a repetitive manner, it makes the process interactive. Also present it with full of fun, making it easy for the baby to remember.

[Read: The advantages of reading stories to kids]

When Should I Start Reading While Pregnant?

Reading at the right time will have more considerable effects than just starting at any point. Hence it is extremely crucial to know the precise time to start reading to a baby in the womb. A womb of a mother is more like a play arena. Here, from around the 10th week, the baby starts twisting and turning her body and eventually moves.

• By about six months of pregnancy, a baby does get acquainted with the sounds inside the womb. The baby gets familiar with the sounds from digestive ones to even the mother’s heartbeat.
• It can even hear the external sounds quite clearly. But the magnitude is ranging to 10-15 decibels lesser than the internal ones.
• It is believed that a baby by the end of the second trimester or close to 23 weeks starts reacting to it by moving towards the sound and even start showing reactions to the food habits.

With the help of these actions, babies start training and grooming for the life that beckons. Therefore Interaction in any form with the baby in the womb helps in cognitive development. This could be by the medium of singing, reading or talking aloud to the baby.

Benefits of Reading to a Baby in the Womb?

Pregnancy is a phase that makes the mother vigilant about her eating habits, health, hygiene, fitness, likes-dislikes, for giving the nutritional best to the baby and also create the best environment possible. This at times can be stressful and reading a book to your unborn baby works like a good detox!

“ Did you know that a newborn baby who has been read by the mother in the womb can easily distinguish between the mother’s native language from any other foreign language and that too in a couple of hours of taking birth”? As per research, reading to your unborn is loaded with benefits for the mother-child duo. Some of the benefits are discussed as under:

1. Reading While Pregnant Helps in the Reduction of Maternal Stress and Anxiety

Reading to the baby helps in reducing pre-natal stress and worries. A study shows that when a mother reads to a baby in the womb, the heart rate of the baby seems to drop and she calms down and shows less movement stating she is enjoying the read.

2. Reading While Pregnant Improves Bonding Behavior

The bond between the mother and the baby becomes stronger by reading to the unborn baby as the baby starts getting familiar with the mother’s voice and can identify soft and loud tones of music. She feels more relaxed when soft music is played as it helps in resting due to its comforting quality just like a lullaby.

Whereas if the baby is sleepy and loud music is played, it, in turn, kicks as it dislikes it. Even the father y just participating in the reading activity, singing or talking to the baby will help in making the bond stronger.

3. Enhanced Concentration and Attention Span

Once the mother starts reading to the baby, they pick up the melody of the song, even though the words do not mean anything to them but they start identifying the voice of the mother. The child also tends to listen to it for a long time, resulting in increased attention span and concentration levels. Repetitive words also get stored in the memory of the unborn and this helps them further when they start their schooling.

Find out some free books to read for children here

Now you know Does Reading Books During Pregnancy Make The Child Smart? Thus, it can be seen that with an early start by reading to the baby far-reaching results are achieved. So it is best to kick start early for making the mother, baby bond stronger and help the mother’s distress from maternal worries and stress. Finally to let the mother enjoy gradually along with the baby, relax, be calm, and enjoy the enjoyable moments of parenting leading to strong and firm relationships and a happy, secure, and comfortable future that beckons.

Also Read: Importance of storytelling for kids here

Reading for pregnant women: how to prepare for motherhood and childbirth

While expecting a baby, a woman may experience mood swings, anxiety and fears associated with pregnancy and the upcoming birth. Mood swings - a consequence of hormonal changes in the body, slight excitement and anxiety - are quite useful for a more responsible approach to an important matter, but fears are a completely unnecessary and harmful thing. Fears arise from ignorance of the causes of occurrence and from the inability to act correctly in a given situation.

Every year about 150 million babies are born in the world, and this process, of course, is very well studied and described in many medical articles and popular books. It remains only to choose the most useful of them and gain knowledge.

And here is the first useful knowledge: fears and mental anguish can cause toxicosis in the first trimester. Do you need it? - Not. This means that we get answers to specific questions from our obstetrician-gynecologist, watch educational films, sign up for training courses and read useful books from the AST Publishing House.

What else can you advise a future mother?

• First, do not try to solve all problems at the same time, wanting to get answers to exciting questions within one day. It is necessary to postpone some questions for some time. Most of them will be resolved without your participation.
• Secondly, at the moment, the most important thing is to accept a new state, learn to indulge your little weaknesses, change your point of view and feel a special taste for the changes that are taking place. A responsible approach to pregnancy is the rejection of bad habits, adherence to the regime of work and rest, the ability to avoid everyday troubles, not to react to annoying little things. It would seem that common and banal truths, but they will allow you to endure and give birth to a healthy and strong baby.

What books to read during pregnancy:

Pregnancy and the first year of life

Surkova Larisa Mikhailovna

The author of the book is Larisa Surkova, mother of many children. She has four children. Larisa is a candidate of psychological sciences. In her book: "Pregnancy and the first year of life", the writer tried to answer the most popular questions that worry expectant mothers. Readers will learn how to build their lives during pregnancy, how to properly prepare for the birth of a baby, and how to inform others about their pregnancy. Larisa Surkova also touched upon the topic of proper diet, which a pregnant woman should follow.

After childbirth, it is important for a woman to know how to quickly return to shape after childbirth, how to calm the baby by putting him to bed, how to get rid of fears for the child. The book discusses many other issues that will surely help future mothers learn almost everything about pregnancy, childbirth and raising a baby from birth.

#PREGANCY: 9 month short

Butskaya Tatyana Viktorovna

Tatyana Butskaya, a popular blogger, doctor, winner of the "Parents' Choice 2017" award, editor-in-chief of the birth portal "Rody.ru", wrote a book: "#PREGANCY: a short film 9months." Butskaya affects not only the medical aspects of pregnancy, but also the social ones. For example, how to inform your beloved that he will soon become a father and whether it is possible for a pregnant woman to go on a long journey. And also from the book you can learn how to cope with toxicosis, heartburn, and other unpleasant symptoms, what to do if a woman has a negative Rh blood. On 256 pages, answers to the most exciting questions are given. Professional Tatyana Butskaya will dispel all your fears, teach you to appreciate every happy moment of the magical state of pregnancy.

Your pregnancy bible. Updated edition

Series: Mother and child deluxe edition

Mother and child deluxe edition

Pregnancy is considered a magical time, full of amazing sensations, discoveries, a unique time of waiting for a miracle and preparing for the arrival of a new person into the world. The supplemented and updated edition covers all aspects of pregnancy, childbirth, and caring for a newborn baby.

When creating a book: “Your pregnancy bible. Updated Edition, the authors worked directly in close collaboration with a group of highly specialized specialists: with geneticists, obstetricians, gynecologists, experts in the field of nutrition, exercise, physiologists, embryologists, pediatricians. Detailed specialized consultations were received from consultants who specialize in natural childbirth, breastfeeding and newborn care.

The book is supplemented with illustrations, bright color photographs with three-dimensional images of the fetus, which will allow you to visually observe its growth and development during all three trimesters of pregnancy, right from the moment of conception to birth.

The reference sections contain the necessary tests, types of examinations and medical procedures that are used during pregnancy. Moreover, not only standard situations and prevention are considered, but also possible medical problems that a mother and a newborn may experience. The book will help parents get the full range of information about the course of pregnancy. After reading the publication, future parents will be able to take not only a positive, but also an active position, learn to make informed decisions for the successful bearing and birth of a healthy baby.

Being a mom is great! Pregnancy and the first year of a baby's life

Surkova Larisa Mikhailovna

Larisa Surkova is a recognized master of child and family psychology. In the book “Being a mom is great. Pregnancy and the first year of a baby's life ”gives answers to questions that always worry expectant mothers, no matter what their pregnancy is. The publication touches upon the topic of proper and nutritious nutrition during pregnancy, ways to prepare for the birth of a baby. In the book, women will find recommendations on how to communicate with a husband, with relatives immediately after the birth of a child, how to survive the crisis of the first year of life - one of the normative age crises that completes the infantile period of development.

The big book of a happy mother. 1000 secrets, tips, finds, tips that you will not find anywhere else

Series: Mom's main book

Mom's main book

The Big Book of a Happy Mom really does contain 1,000 clues that you won't find anywhere else! Olga Svistunova takes up the consideration of those issues that touch or have already touched the life of every parent. How to raise a healthy and strong baby? How to make the process of getting acquainted with the potty interesting and creative? Is there a general regimen for breastfeeding? What is dynamic gymnastics for a young mother? How to use the "sling" and whether it will replace the stroller. 1000 tips for improving skills in the field of parenthood. And all in one book.

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Reading before birth - CBSE

Recently, the theory of the positive impact on the child of mediated reading even in the prenatal period has been very popular: the more the expectant mother reads aloud children's fairy tales, poems, songs, the better the baby will develop intellectually and creatively, the faster you learn to read.

The emergence of new life is a great mystery of nature. Each of us lived this miracle, being born into the world, and remembering nothing about 9months spent in the womb. To get in touch again with the secret of birth is given to every woman who decides to become a mother.

What does an unborn baby feel and understand? The answer to this question has always interested people. Intuitively, many expectant mothers from the first days of pregnancy treat their baby as a real-life and completely independent person. And this gives parents the opportunity to live together with the child even before his birth, to communicate with him, helping the baby grow, grow up, get smarter, that is, take care of him prenatal (antenatal) care .

Is it worth raising a child so early, at a time when nature itself takes care of him, transforming a tiny cell into a human being? Modern scientific studies of the intrauterine development of the child confirm that the child is already brought up in the mother's stomach. It is there that the child lives the initial stages of not only physical, but also mental maturation.

Even before birth, a child begins to learn about the world around him. He does not live in a silent, dark space, but perceives the world around him with those sense organs that are formed in him very early. Already at the eighth week of intrauterine life, the baby develops tactile sensitivity . The child begins to feel temperature and touch. By the 14th week, the entire skin surface of the baby is ready to receive information. Speaking of intuitive, accurate understanding, knowledge, people use the expression “I feel with my skin”, perhaps this is how the memory of the first experience of knowing the world has been preserved in our language.

At the 5th month of pregnancy, the baby's movements become noticeable to the mother, and the baby meets the first touches of his own hands. The baby pushes and the mother strokes the belly. Stroking the surface of the abdomen is the first gentle play with a baby who has not yet been born. The child gets an important experience communication - response to their manifestations.

By tapping with the mother, the baby learns dialogue. Communicating with the baby during pregnancy, parents establish a strong emotional connection with him. Such communication gives the child a sense of security and comfort necessary for its successful development.

In addition to being touched, the child also needs words addressed to him. Many expectant mothers mentally talk to the child from the very beginning of pregnancy. The baby, of course, feels that you are talking to him. Your child feels any emotional state at the level of hormones entering the blood. In addition, the baby in the womb "hears with the body", perceiving the sounds of the mother's voice through the vibrations of the amniotic fluid and muscle sensations. Therefore, the mother needs to speak with the baby not only mentally, but also out loud. At the seventh month, the child's ear begins to hear and already perceives sounds both inside and outside the mother's body.