Not yet in your arms, but already very active, your baby is developing fascinating skills and behaviors in your womb. Thanks to ultrasounds and numerous studies on fetal development, we now know much more about what your baby experiences, feels, and learns before birth.
CONTENTS:
- Sucking, great training for the bottle
- He might already be dreaming (about whom, about what?)
- Your child reacts to your voice—and to music too
- He also reacts to light (peekaboo!)
- Those little fetal hiccups you feel so well
- He tastes what you eat (the beginning of endless sharing)
- Your baby’s breathing in the womb isn’t what you imagine
- He makes grimaces (and it’s not just by chance)
- What if your baby cried in utero?
- He explores (with his hands and feet)
Sucking, great training for the bottle
Between 12 and 14 weeks of pregnancy, babies start bringing their hands to their mouths to suck their thumbs or fingers. This is often one of the first moments of amazement for parents who discover their baby in this tender, familiar pose during the first ultrasound.
An astonishingly precise gesture that can serve different functions: helping develop hand-mouth coordination, preparing muscles for postnatal sucking, and maybe even bringing a calming effect. However, this emotional and psychological dimension has never really been proven.
Nevertheless, sucking remains a way for your baby to get to know his or her own body and to practice feeding independently—either at the bottle or at the breast.
🩷 Baby can suck his thumb as early as 12 weeks of pregnancy.
By the way, did you know that Élhée has developed a birth bottle accepted by the vast majority of babies? Made from healthy medical-grade silicone, this soft and flexible bottle can be used from your child’s very first day.
He might already be dreaming (about whom, about what?)
Quickly, your baby develops a wake/sleep cycle that is offset from yours. His activity peaks between 9 p.m. and midnight—just when you’re longing for a good night’s sleep. (Is he preparing you for the months to come?)
So, as early as the 7th month of pregnancy, his nights include REM (Rapid Eye Movement) phases, characteristic of paradoxical sleep—the sleep of dreams. Even if it’s hard—if not impossible—to say with certainty that he really dreams, these phases at least suggest intense brain activity that helps process sensations and emotions perceived in utero.
🩷 The fetus already experiences REM sleep which is conducive to dreaming.
Your child reacts to your voice—and to music too
Hearing starts developing as early as the 16th week of pregnancy. At 23 weeks gestational age, your baby recognizes the most familiar voices, including those of his parents. You might have already noticed: when you speak to him, he reacts! In fact, he seems to have a preference for his mother’s voice and for melodious or classical music.
Future dads, don’t feel bad! It’s just that for as long as he’s existed, your child has been hearing his mother’s sounds—her heart, her breathing, her digestion, and, of course, the melody of her voice at every moment. What could be more reassuring?
🩷 At the end of the second trimester, your child can hear you in utero.
He also reacts to light (peekaboo!)
Slightly later, by week 28 (early in the seventh month of pregnancy), your baby will literally develop superpowers: he can perceive light through the uterine wall.
Of course, the light has to be bright enough, but still—what an achievement! You can try pointing a light source at your belly to observe your baby’s possible reactions and create a unique bonding moment.
🩷 During the third trimester, your baby can detect some bright spots through your belly.
Those little hiccups you feel so well
From the second trimester, you can feel your baby hiccuping in your belly—even though he’s not breathing in air! This very common phenomenon, much loved by moms, is usually due to the diaphragm maturing or swallowing of amniotic fluid.
As explained in a study published in the journal ScienceDirect, fetal hiccups are a sign of normal development in babies and can be felt by moms as small rhythmic jolts.
🩷 Before birth, your baby can already have hiccups!
He tastes what you eat (the beginning of endless sharing)
Very early on, around 13 weeks of pregnancy, babies start experiencing their first tastes. The amniotic fluid in which they float actually changes flavor depending on what you eat.
Definitely, a mother’s diet influences her baby’s preferences after birth. Something to remember for a very early start to food education!
🩷 Taste doesn’t wait. Baby can sense it at the end of the first trimester.
Your baby’s breathing in the womb isn’t what you imagine
At the end of pregnancy, during the third trimester, your baby actually performs real breathing movements—just like you, but with no air. He inhales and exhales amniotic fluid to get his body used to the process and to strengthen the muscles and lungs that will soon be needed.
🩷 Baby “breathes” amniotic fluid. He’s even better than freedivers!
He makes grimaces (and it’s not just by chance)
If the structural ultrasound happens between the 21st and 24th week of gestation, it’s almost at the same time that your baby starts practicing his best angle! Not that he’s trying to pose for the 3D ultrasound, but rather to work out his facial muscles for later.
🩷 A fetus quickly develops the ability to move his facial muscles.
What if your baby cried in utero?
Around 28 weeks, your baby is capable of a "complex behavioral response." Observations by the Department of Psychology at Princeton University in the United States have highlighted some typical signs of crying that your baby expresses right from birth, but in silence: mouth open, trembling chin, and irregular breathing.
🩷 It’s hard to know if they’re expressing discomfort, but your child already mimics crying in the womb.
He explores (with his hands and feet)
Very early in pregnancy, your baby starts moving around in your belly. At first, these are faint, but his movements get stronger as his muscles develop and as space in your belly gets tight.
With his hands, baby touches his face, his umbilical cord, your uterine wall... And by about 20 weeks, he starts to intentionally explore his environment.
🩷 From the middle of the second trimester, your baby voluntarily explores your belly.
In your belly, your baby is developing fascinating and complex skills and behaviors. Every movement, every reaction, every step is crucial in preparing for life outside the womb. These amazing developments, captured during ultrasounds or felt by parents, create unique and precious memories. If you’d like to learn more, here are a few extra resources:
- Fetal sensory development: a medical article published by Dr. Marie-Claude Busnel
- The Contribution of Prenatal Psychology to Our Understanding about Prenatal Dynamics and Fetal Behaviour, a study published in the Journal of Psychology Research
- Websites: Brain Research Foundation
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