Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Babies Learn Music and Language in the Womb! Research

As I have written previously, several lines of scientific evidence point to the fact that even while they are in the womb, babies are fully human. Far from being a “mass of flesh” that hasn’t reached the status of personhood, a baby in the womb has all the genetic characteristics of a human being as well as some of the social and mental characteristics of a human being. Three new studies demonstrate that they also have some communication characteristics of a human being.

In one study, for example, 12 pregnant women played a CD loudly five times each week during the last trimester of their pregnancy. It contained excerpts from several different melodies, and there was talking in between the excerpts. However, the important melody on the CD was “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” which was repeated 3 times. The babies developing in these mothers’ wombs heard this melody 138 to 192 times before they were born. The mothers then destroyed the CD once their child was born, so that there was no chance the baby could hear the contents of the CD afterwards.

Shortly after birth and again at the ripe old age of 4 months, the babies were played a modified version the “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” melody nine times. In this modified version, 12.5% of the notes from the original melody were randomly changed to a single note – “B.” While the modified melody was playing, an EEG recorded the electrical activity in each baby’s brain. The researchers also chose 12 babies whose mothers had not been given the CD and did the same thing to them. The babies who had heard the CD in the womb had significantly higher electrical brain activity when the modified notes were played, indicating that these notes were unfamiliar to them. For the babies whose mothers had not been given the CD, the electrical activity in the brain was the same during both the original notes and the changed notes.1 This gives strong evidence that babies can learn the music they hear while they are in the womb.

Of course, one could argue that animals respond to music, so perhaps this is not a uniquely human trait. However, our means of communication is unique to humans, and even in the womb, babies are already starting to learn how to talk. For example, Christine Moon and her colleagues studied 80 babies who were 7-75 hours old. Half of the babies were from the U.S., and the other half were from Sweden. They gave each baby a pacifier that controlled an audio presentation. When the baby sucked on the pacifier, vowel sounds would be played. Some of the vowel sounds were from their native tongue, and some were from a foreign language. They found that the babies sucked on the pacifier more when a foreign vowel sound was played. This indicated that the babies were much more familiar with the native vowel sounds, and they recognized the foreign vowel sounds as being different.

Interestingly enough, the babies who were tested just 7 hours after birth performed essentially the same as the babies that were tested 75 hours after birth. This indicates that the babies’ responses had nothing to do with what they had heard since birth. Thus, the authors conclude that the babies were more familiar with the vowel sounds they had heard while they were in the womb. The authors state.

Of course, the level of learning is yet to be determined. However, the fact that a baby in the womb is learning language (even at a very rudimentary level) indicates that it is fully human.

Not only do babies recognize vowel sounds that they hear while in the womb, they also recognize words they hear – even when a word has been made up! The same researcher who did first study I discussed also headed up a study in which 17 pregnant Finnish women were instructed to play a recording of a made-up word (tatata) loudly 5-7 times a week during their third trimester of pregnancy. The recording said the word over and over again in two bursts of four minutes each. Most of the time, the word was pronounced exactly the same, but every once in a while, it would be pronounced slightly differently.

An average of five days after each baby was born, he or she heard the same recording, and an EEG measured the electrical activity in the baby’s brain. The electrical activity shot up when the baby heard the odd pronunciation of the word, indicating that the baby knew this was different from the standard pronunciation. The researchers did the same thing with 16 babies whose mothers had not played the recordings at all, and the babies registered no spike in electrical activity when the word was pronounced oddly. This indicates that the babies who heard the made-up word in the womb remembered it.3

So not only do babies learn melodies in the womb, they learn the basics of speech and learn to recognize certain words. When you combine this with the genetic evidence, the social interaction evidence, and the brain-development evidence, it is clear that even in the womb, babies are fully human.

REFERENCES

1. Eino Partanen, Teija Kujala, Mari Tervaniemi, and Minna Huotilainen, “Prenatal Music Exposure Induces Long-Term Neural Effects,” PLoS ONE, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0078946, 2013

2. Christine Moon, Hugo Lagercrantz, and Patricia K Kuhl, “Language experienced in utero affects vowel perception after birth: a two-country study,” Acta Paediatricia, 102(2):156-160, 2013

3. Eino Partanen, Teija Kujala, Risto Näätänen, Auli Liitola, Anke Sambeth, and Minna Huotilainen, “Learning-induced neural plasticity of speech processing before birth,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, doi:10.1073/pnas.1302159110, 2013

Disclaimer
The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

Dr Unnati Chavda
(Promoting pregnancy wellness)
www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

Bacteria in Breast Milk? Yes! Research

The breast milk that a mother feeds her baby is laden with bacteria. Does that sound bad? It shouldn’t! While there are some pathogenic bacteria, most bacteria are incredibly beneficial to the life that exists on this planet. That’s especially true of bacteria that live in and on people. It turns out that most people live in a relationship with more than 150 different species of bacteria, and the individual bacteria that participate in this relationship far outnumber the human cells that make up a person’s body. In one sense, then, a person is not an individual. Instead, he or she is a walking ecosystem!

Scientists now call the collection of bacteria that lives in a person’s body the microbiome, and as the article linked above indicates, each person seems to have his or her own special mix of bacteria in that microbiome. Indeed, some researchers think that analyzing the DNA of the bacteria a criminal leaves behind can aid in identifying that criminal in cases where his or her own DNA is not available at the crime scene or too degraded to analyze properly.1

So where does an infant start collecting the bacteria that will make up his or her own microbiome? One of the sources is the breast milk that the infant drinks. It has been known for quite some time that breast milk contains bacteria, but the details have not been well studied. However, a group of Spanish researchers have begun to shed some light on those details. They studied the breast milk of 18 mothers who varied in weight, weight gain during pregnancy, and the mode in which the baby was delivered. They sampled the milk these mothers produced at three different times: the first secretions of milk produced after giving birth (called colostrum), the milk that was produced one month after giving birth, and the milk that was produced six months after giving birth. They sequenced the DNA of the bacteria found in these samples of milk, and they came up with some amazing results.2

First, they showed that the diversity of bacteria found in the breast milk was significantly higher than previously thought. In some of the samples they studied, they found the DNA of seven hundred different species of bacteria! However, they found that this mix of bacterial species did not stay constant over time. Instead, the colostrum was rich in intestinal bacteria from generas such as Weissella and Lactococcus, while the milk produced one and six months after delivery had higher concentrations of oral bacteria such as those from the genus Veillonella. The researchers note that it is possible the increase in these oral bacteria is a result of the baby contributing bacteria to the mother’s breast, so it is not clear whether this is a designed change to optimize the health of the baby or simply a result of the breastfeeding process.

Second, they found that the mothers who were obese had a significantly lower diversity of bacteria in their milk as compared to the milk of the mothers who were not obese. Now, of course, the number of women in this study is rather small, so it’s not clear how significant this comparison is. If further studies demonstrate that this correlation is real, it might indicate that obese mothers are not giving their children an ideal mix of bacteria when they are infants. It’s even possible that the lower diversity of bacteria that the infants receive predisposes them to weight gain later in life.

Third, they found that the breast milk produced by mothers who underwent planned Caesarian section deliveries was significantly different from the milk produced by the mothers who went through a vaginal delivery. Like the obese mothers, those who went through planned Caesarian section deliveries produced milk that had a significantly lower diversity of bacterial species. However, if the mother went through an unplanned Caesarian section delivery, the diversity of bacteria in her milk was much more similar to the mothers who went through vaginal deliveries!

Once again, the small number of mothers in the study means we must view this result with some skepticism, but let’s suppose the observed differences are confirmed in other studies. How can we explain that the Caesarian section delivery must be planned in order to result in a lower diversity of bacteria in the mother’s milk? The authors suggest that hormonal responses which are specific to the labor process play a role in determining the bacterial content of the mother’s breast milk. Thus, the key is not necessarily the delivery method, but the way in which the mothers experience the labor process.

Obviously, this small study has opened up a whole new area of research when it comes to infants and their development. As time goes on, I expect that more research will reveal that the mix of bacteria in a mother’s breast milk is very important in the healthy development of her baby. As a creationist, this doesn’t surprise me at all. I have stated previously that creationists have proposed that microorganisms (and even viruses) were initially created as a link between macroorganisms (like people) and the chemical richness of their surroundings. It’s not surprising, then, that babies are introduced to a wide diversity of these useful organisms shortly after they emerge from the womb.

REFERENCES

1. Kennedy DM, Stanton J-AL, García JA, Mason C, Rand CJ, et al., “Microbial Analysis of Bite Marks by Sequence Comparison of Streptococcal DNA,” PLoS ONE 7(12):e51757 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0051757, 2012

2. Cabrera-Rubio R, Collado MC, Laitinen K, Salminen S, Isolauri E, and Mira A., “The human milk microbiome changes over lactation and is shaped by maternal weight and mode of delivery,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 96(3):544-51, 2012

In the end, then, breast milk doesn’t just give a baby the bacteria he or she needs. It also includes nutrition that can be used only by those bacteria, so as to encourage them to stay with the baby! Indeed, this was recently demonstrated in a study in which the authors spiked either infant formula or bottled breast milk with two strains of beneficial bacteria. After observing the premature babies who received the concoctions for several weeks, they found that the ones who had been feed bacteria-spiked formula did not have nearly as many of the beneficial microbes in their intestines as those who had been feed bacteria-spiked breast milk.

Disclaimer
The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

Dr Unnati Chavda
(Promoting pregnancy wellness)
www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

 

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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

WHY DO NEWBORN BABIES SMELL SO GOOD?: RESEARCH

There’s something intoxicating about the milky smell of a newborn. Many mothers admit to spending hours inhaling their baby’s odour.

And for good reason — several studies have shown that women can pick out the scent of their baby from other newborns just a few days after giving birth. 

Parents may also be able to detect a similarity between their baby’s smell and that of other close family members. 

We don’t know precisely where these  olfactory signals come from, but scientists think it may be the baby’s sebaceous glands — the tiny oil producers which tend to be particularly active in newborn babies, especially on the head and face. 

Body odour is influenced by what we eat, so breast-feeding may also contribute to that delicious new-baby smell. 

CAN YOUR UNBORN BABY TASTE YOUR SPICY TAKEAWAY?

Many women believe eating curry in late pregnancy will bring on labour. The taste buds on a baby’s tongue begin to develop 13 to 15 weeks into pregnancy, enabling him or her to detect simple tastes such as sweet, sour and salty in the womb. 

Smells and flavours from a mother’s food get into the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby during the third trimester, and as a foetus breathes and swallows around a litre of this a day, which then passes over smell and taste receptors in the nose and mouth, unborn babies do get a taste of what their mum is eating. 

CAN YOU TRAIN YOUR UNBORN BABY TO HAVE HEALTHY EATING HABITS IN LATER LIFE?

It seems that the memory of tastes experienced in the womb influences the foods babies like in later life. 

Studies have shown that if Mum drinks a glass of carrot juice four times a week in the last trimester (or the first two months of breastfeeding) her baby will find cereal prepared with carrot juice appealing once weaned.

Babies whose mothers eat a lot of fruit during pregnancy are also more likely to enjoy fruit during weaning. 

Trying to eat as many different flavours as possible should, therefore, expose your unborn or breastfeeding baby to different tastes and, in theory make them less prone to fussy eating. 

CAN A BABY DETECT ITS MOTHER'S MOOD IN THE WOMB?

How a mother feels during pregnancy can certainly affect her unborn baby’s movements. 

In a study at Japan’s Nagasaki University, ten women in their last trimester were shown an uplifting clip from the film The Sound Of Music — in which Julie Andrews skips gaily through alpine meadows — while their baby’s movements were monitored by ultrasound. 

The women also watched a tear‑jerking clip from boxing film The Champ. They wore earphones, so the baby couldn’t hear the soundtrack.

When the women watched the 'happy' film, their babies seemed stimulated and waved their arms. But during the sad film their movements decreased. 

Although the study included only a small number of women, it does at least hint that a baby can detect its mother’s mood. 

It’s thought this might occur because hormones, such as adrenaline, are released during times of stress or sadness and can redirect blood flow away from the uterus, which the baby picks up on.

WHY DO NEWBORNS HAVE BLUE EYES?

Eye colour is inherited, determined by the amount of a pigment called melanin that we produce. People who don’t produce much melanin have blue or grey eyes, while those who produce lots have brown eyes. 

At birth, however, very little melanin is produced — regardless of genes. This is why most babies’ eyes appear blue or blue-grey. But as babies’ eyes are exposed to the light, the body’s production of melanin is ramped up. 

If a baby is genetically programmed to produce lots of melanin, their eye colour will begin to change as the months go by. A baby’s eye colour will usually settle down around the age of six months and is unlikely to change much after this.

ARE SUMMER-BORN BABIES DIFFERENT FROM WINTER BABIES?

If a baby is born in the UK between September and December, they are statistically twice as likely to become a professional football player as a baby born in the summer months. 

Unfortunately they are also slightly more likely to suffer from panic attacks and, if male, to become an alcoholic in adulthood. 

Meanwhile, if you’re ambitious for your child to become a doctor, you might aim for an April-June birthday.

The effect of our birth month on our health is small, but significant enough that it can’t be dismissed. For example, babies born in the northern hemisphere in February, March and April are 5-10 per cent more likely to develop schizophrenia (one of the best-studied season-linked disorders). 

Different factors are likely to be at work here. Some studies have suggested that the increased risk of schizophrenia among babies born in the springtime is the result of their mother being exposed to viruses such as influenza during a critical period of pregnancy. 

More recently, scientists have proposed that vitamin D deficiency caused by low levels of sunlight during an autumn/winter pregnancy may be to blame, or that varying levels of brain chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine at different times of the year may play a role.

DO BABIES LIKE SOME PEOPLE BETTER THAN OTHERS?

Some people love babies, others can’t stand them — and little ones feel the same about us. 

Given a choice between photographs of two faces — one that had been rated as attractive by a group of adults and one rated unattractive — a newborn baby will choose to fixate on the more appealing face. 

But babies don’t just judge books by their covers. Newborns get upset if people’s facial expressions suggest they’re not responding to them. 

Experiments with babies as young as three hours old have shown that if their mother pulls a blank, expressionless face, the baby responds by decreasing their eye contact and showing signs of distress. 

This suggests that babies are born with certain expectations regarding the rules of communication — much like the rest of us.

WHY DO BABIES SAY 'DADA' BEFORE 'MAMA'?

Learning to speak requires the coordination of more than 70 different muscles and body parts, so it’s not until around seven or eight months of age that babies start to babble. 

Barbara L. Davis, of the University of Texas, travels the world trying to capture these first utterances and make sense of them using a tiny microphone attached to a bib.

From China to Holland, Ecuador to the UK and beyond, she says children are extremely alike during this babbling period. 

Sounds such as 'b', 'd', 'm' and 'g' combined with 'ah' seem to be easiest to make, so that’s where babies start.

Although many parents assume that 'Mama' and 'Dada' are among babies’ first words because these are the people who are important to them, baby babble doesn’t start taking on meaning until around ten months. 

Many babies do tend to say 'da' before 'ma', though, because early speech sounds tend to be produced by moving the lips, jaw and soft palate simultaneously. 

This is how we make 'ba' and 'da' sounds. 'Ma' requires us to move the lips and jaw but relax the soft palate — a more complex operation.

WHY DO WE SPEAK TO BABIES IN A SILLY VOICE?

We’ve all caught ourselves talking in a sing-song voice to babies, but does sounding silly really serve any purpose? 

The fact is, parents across the world show a common pattern when talking to babies. They raise the pitch of their voice, speak more slowly, elongate the vowels, repeat themselves and exaggerate changes in intonation. And there seems to be a good reason why. 

Recent research at Brown University in the U.S. showed that elongating vowel sounds when talking to toddlers enhanced their ability to recognise words. 

The exaggerated way we interact with babies seems to be important, too, for capturing their attention.

Disclaimer
The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

Dr Unnati Chavda
(Promoting pregnancy wellness)
www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

Babies Remember Music Heard In The Womb : Research

According to the results of a small UK study, children recognize and prefer music they were exposed to in the womb for at least a year after they are born. Researcher Dr. Alexandra Lamont stated that while she found no evidence that just playing music to babies improved their intelligence, the results are exciting as they suggest that the developing brain is capable of storing and recovering memories over a long period of time.

Hepper added, ``At a more general level, the results indicate that environmental factors experienced by the fetus may have a long-term influence on its development. And they support the growing realization that the prenatal period is more important than previously thought.''

Birth of Musical Protégés? How Music Heard in the Womb is Remembered by the Child

A study carried out at the University of Leicester,  shown on BBC's Child Of Our Time - reveals for the first time that babies remember sounds they heard in the womb and recognise them well into later life.

The study, by Dr Alexandra Lamont from the Music Research Group at the University's School of Psychology, demonstrates how one-year-old babies recognise music they were exposed to up to three months before birth.

The discovery explodes the theory that babies can only remember things for a month or two and suggests that memory could last a great deal longer than that.

This provides important new evidence for the influence of nurture in early child development, said Dr Lamont, who is a lecturer in psychology.

She said: We know that the foetus in the womb is able to hear fully only 20 weeks after conception. Now we have discovered that babies can remember and prefer music that they heard before they were born over 12 months later.

The Child Of Our Time study involved a small group of mothers playing a single piece of music to their babies for the last three months before birth.

Dr Lamont said the music was chosen by the mother so all babies heard different pieces of music while still in the womb. These included classical (opera, Mozart and Vivaldi), world (Spirits of Nature), reggae (UB40, Ken Boothe) and pop (Five).

Over 12 months later, eleven of the babies were tested and showed a significant preference for these pieces of music compared with very similar pieces of music they had not heard before.

After the babies were a year old, they heard the pre-natal music and other music that was matched for style, key, pace and loudness. For example, a baby who was exposed to UB40's Many Rivers to Cross before birth heard this piece with another slow reggae track, Freddie McGregor's Stop Lovin' You.

The babies' preference is shown by the amount of time they spend looking towards the source of the music. Their attention is attracted by flashing disco lights, and the music then plays from a loudspeaker next to the light. When they stop looking in a particular direction, the music stops. The babies quickly learn the association between their looks and the amount of music they get to hear.

None of these babies had been exposed to the pre-natal music in the intervening period (i.e. from birth to first birthday). Dr Lamont says: This means that the preference found here is based on very long term memory rather than on a memory which is constantly reactivated by later exposure.

A control group of 11 babies tested with the same pieces of music show no preference for a particular piece this means there is nothing about the music itself which is responsible for the preferences found in the pre-natal group.

Dr Lamont said: This small-scale study suggests that deliberate and extended pre-natal exposure to music sets up a very long-term memory trace for a particular piece of music, and that this is recognised and preferred over 12 months later.

The style of the music is not important - the babies recognise UB40 just as much as they do Mozart. But the pace of the music seems to be influential - the babies with faster music like Five's If Ya Gettin' Down or the start of Vivaldi's Four Seasons show stronger preferences than the babies with slower music like Mozart's Adagio for Wind.

This relates to other findings by Dr Lamont that babies have developed clear preferences for faster and more exciting music by the age of 12 months.

LITERACY | musical memory, music intelligence

However, these babies' outstanding musical memories are not at all related to their intelligence. Dr Lamont emphasised that there is no evidence here that playing classical music to babies helps make their brains develop - the babies perform just as well with pop or reggae music, and the same high levels of musical memory are found in babies from families where IQ levels differ enormously.

Dr Lamont will be exploring the longer-term implications of these memory skills over the coming years with the Child Of Our Time babies, to find out how musical taste changes over time and how early music exposure relates to the children's involvement in musical activities later in life.

Sandra Trehub is one of the authors of a noted study on musically untutored babies, showing that they prefer harmony to dissonance. At a more complex level, this involves documenting infants' and young children's skill in discriminating and remembering realistic sound patterns such as melodies. In addition to the research on auditory perception, I conduct other research on singing to infants in the course of care-giving, an activity that seems to be universal. This research has a field component as well as a laboratory component, the field work involving the collection of samples of singing from various national and ethnic groups locally and abroad. One goal of this work is to document the similarities and differences in the nature of singing to infants across different languages and cultures. Another is to determine the effect of such singing on infant listeners.

  • Study senior Eino Partanen from Helsinki University said in this journal that even though they have previously presented that fetuses might learn petty details of speech, they did not realize    how  long they could possesses such information.
  • Such results represent that fetuses are able to learn at the very early age & such effects of learning remain possible in their brain for the long time.
  • In performing the study, the scientists asked women during their 3rd trimester of pregnancy for playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” minimum 5 times per week.
  • In the mean time, another group of women did not play either music when they are in final trimester.
  • Shortly after the birth, the scientists measured the brain activity of newborns’ while they listened to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” also as an identical tune with few different notes in it, for determining if any learning had occurred. They repeated such assessment while the infants were 4 months old.
  • They observed that when newborns listened to the song before their birth, the brain activity was much healthier while they listened to the earliest song than when they listened to the altered version. Effect was still present while the fetuses were 4 months old.
  • The scientists said that the time span between the 27th week of pregnancy & 6 months after an infant is born is crucial to the growth of the auditory system.-
  • Disclaimer
    The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

    Dr Unnati Chavda
    (Promoting pregnancy wellness)
    www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

    Our Health Is Shaped In The Womb: Research

    When we hold a newborn baby for the first time, we imagine them clean and new, unmarked by life.

    In fact, they have already been shaped by the world and by their mothers.

    New scientific discoveries are revealing that the nine months spent in the womb ­profoundly affect a baby’s health and ­ well-being, well into adulthood.

    Indeed, much of what a pregnant woman encounters in daily life — the food and drink she consumes, the emotions and stresses she feels, the exercise she takes, and even the job she does — is shared in some fashion with her unborn child. 

    Early beginnings: A baby's health and wellbeing is profoundly affected by the nine months spent in the womb

    Such new findings fundamentally ­question our assumption that major illnesses — from heart disease, to diabetes, to cancer — are caused by a combination of bad genes and bad adult habits.

    In fact, there is a third risk factor of which we’ve taken too little account — our ­experiences in the womb, thanks to the lifestyle our mothers followed when pregnant.

    Remarkable discoveries are being unearthed about this by Project Viva, a ­Harvard Medical School study of 2,670 ­pregnant women, which began in 1999.

    Mothers’ diets and weight are particularly important, it shows, in raising a child’s risk of being overweight. This relationship ­persists into the child’s adolescent years. 

    Compared with the teenagers of women who had moderate weight gain during ­pregnancy, the adolescent children of women who had excessive weight gain weighed more and were more likely to be obese.

    Why? One possibility is that the bad food choices women make during ­pregnancy can influence the later food tastes of their children.

    Give them a good start: A pregnant woman's healthy lifestyle can dramatically shape her unborn child's future

    In an experiment with rats, published in the British Journal Of Nutrition, Stephanie Bayol and her colleagues at the Royal ­Veterinary College, in London, found that the offspring of mothers who’d been fed on junk food were 95 per cent more likely to overeat than those whose mothers had eaten healthy food, ­consuming around a fifth  more calories a day.

    But there is a positive side to this effect: a good diet might preset a baby’s tastes for healthy food for life.

    Research suggests human ­foetuses can experience tastes and smells in the womb; by seven months, the foetus’s taste buds are fully developed. And babies seem to prefer these familiar tastes once they are out in the world.

    In one 2001 experiment, carried out at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre, in Philadelphia, a group of pregnant women were asked to drink carrot juice during their third ­trimester; another group of ­pregnant women drank water.

    Six months later, the women’s infants were offered cereal mixed with carrot juice. The babies of the carrot-juice-­drinking women consumed more carrot-flavoured cereal and appeared to like its taste more.

    And that’s just the start of it. The food eaten by a pregnant mother can also influence her baby’s long-term health.

    Project Viva studies have found the children of women who have a higher intake of ­vitamin D during pregnancy — found in liver, dairy products and eggs — were less likely to show early signs of asthma.

    Moreoever, a diet high in greens can apparently help to protect a baby against cancer.

    Tests on pregnant mice at ­Oregon State University have shown that the babies of those who ate a chemical derived from cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and brussels sprouts during pregnancy were much less likely to get cancer, even when exposed to a known carcinogen.

    David Williams, the principal researcher, can imagine a day when pregnant women are prescribed a dietary supplement that will protect their future ­children from cancer. ‘It’s not ­science fiction,’ he says. ‘I think that’s where we’re headed.’

    Certainly, the opposite effect — suffering malnutrition in the womb — presents a lasting ­danger for babies. It is increasingly linked to ills such as heart attacks and ­diabetes later in life. This was first seen in people conceived during the Nazis’ starvation of the Netherlands in 1944, when many expectant mothers survived on just 400-to-800 calories a day.

    David Barker, a British doctor who has pioneered investigations into links between ­mothers’ diets and babies’ health, says: ‘One explanation is that foetuses are making the best of a bad job.

    ‘When nutrients are scarce, they divert them towards the really critical organ — the brain — and away from other organs, such as the heart and liver.’

    Getting fit for the future: Research says exercising while pregnant can help a baby's heart rate

    This keeps the baby alive in the short term, he says, but the bill comes due later in life, when the heart, deprived early on, becomes more vulnerable to disease.

    ‘But I believe that’s not all that’s going on,’ Barker continues. ‘I think that foetuses are actually taking cues from the womb ­environment and tailoring their physiology accordingly. They’re preparing themselves for the world they will encounter on the beyond the womb.’

    The foetus adjusts its ­metabolism and other ­processes in anticipation of the ­environment that awaits it, Barker says, whether it’s the parched desert of ­Ethiopia or the bounteous aisles of an upmarket supermarket. And the basis of the ­foetus’s predilection is what its mother eats.

    The damaging effects of poor nutrition in the womb have been made even more plain by research on the effects of fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

    Women who fasted while ­pregnant — gave birth to babies who were born earlier and had lower birth weights.

    But womb-food is not the only key to a baby’s lifetime chances. Exercise may also have a vital effect on a baby’s future health.

    Foetuses whose mothers performed moderate aerobic exercise, at least three times a week, showed the same benefits as their mothers — ­significantly lower heart rates and hearts which responded more healthily to physical demands — compared with ­foetuses whose mothers didn’t exercise, ­according to a study at Kansas City ­University of ­Medicine and Biosciences.

    Science is also now revealing how a mother’s psychology can actually affect a baby. A pregnant mother’s level of stress and depression can play a particularly crucial role in ­influencing her baby’s developing brain and nervous system, potentially shaping the way he or she will manage their own emotions later in life.

    Researchers at Columbia ­University, in the U.S., asked pregnant mothers to take ­intelligence tests while their unborn babies were scanned. All the mothers’ heart rates went up as they tried to pass the tests. In women who were depressed or anxious, their foetuses’ heart rates also rose. 

    Says Professor Caroline Monk, leading the research: ‘That difference suggests that these foetuses are already more sensitive to stress. It could be that the ­foetuses’ nervous systems are already being shaped by their mothers’ emotional states.’

    To add to this research, The National ­Children’s Study, in the U.S., is recruiting 100,000 pregnant women to track their children from before birth to the age of 21, interviewing the ­mothers about their habits and, during pregnancy, sampling their hair, blood, saliva and urine, and testing the water and dust in their homes.

    Give them a good start: A pregnant woman's healthy lifestyle can dramatically shape her unborn child's future.

    Getting fit for the future: Research says exercising while pregnant can help a baby's heart rate

    Adapted from Origins: How The Nine Months Before Birth Shape The Rest Of Our Lives, by Annie Murphy Paul.

    Disclaimer
    The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

    Dr Unnati Chavda
    (Promoting pregnancy wellness)
    www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

    Babies inherently good sleepers,while others aren’t?

    Are some babies inherently good sleepers, while others aren’t? Yes to a certain extent this is true. However natural variations are a lot less than most parents think. There are specific patterns of sleep which are universal to most babies and toddlers. This timeline, collated through years of research, will outline these typical sleep patterns. It will explain what sleep behaviour you can reasonably expect of your little one at each stage of their development.

    In Utero:

    • Nestled in the sleep-inducing womb, the environment is consistent and perfect for sleep. It’s dark, warm, quiet, and when you walk or move about, your baby is rocked to sleep.
    • Your unborn baby sleeps twenty hours or more each day according to study.
    • Your baby is used to hearing the comforting sounds of your heartbeat, the gurgling of your stomach, and the soft tones of your voice. Also, he never experiences hunger due to being permanently hooked up to a steady stream of nutrition. As a consequence of these factors, your baby seldom has difficulty falling to sleep.
    • Waking periods are random and for very short periods of time.
    • Your baby is a very active sleeper. The kicking and poking sensations that you can feel are often movements made during sleep.
    • By the seventh month of pregnancy your baby will start to dream as their brain is now developed enough to partake in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep . In REM sleep, the higher centres of the brain receive stimulation from deeper, more primitive areas. Impulses come up the same sensory pathways that are used for sight and sound, and perhaps touch, smell and taste. This state may allow the unborn baby's developing brain to receive sensory input - to 'see' and to 'hear' - even before birth!  
    • During REM sleep, muscular impulses in the foetus are not blocked as completely as they are in children and adults, so the foetus has some ability to practice actual body movements.
    • By the eighth month of pregnancy your baby will also partake in non-REM sleep. In this more quiet phase of sleep, your baby makes no breathing motions. Yet if respiratory movements were never practiced, your child would be born with no experience at all in using these muscles that are so necessary to survival. Thankfully, respiratory motions do occur in REM sleep.
    • Children dream more the younger they are. 90% of the sleep of premature babies is spent in REM sleep . Unborn babies dream most of all. What does a foetus’ dream about? We can never know. Maybe just flashes of sounds and murky sights.
    • If you’ve had a 4D scan, you may have noticed your unborn baby ‘smiling’ in their sleep. This is because during REM sleep, facial muscles can twitch, producing ‘sleep grins’.
    • Your baby is ‘nocturnal’. He is most active during the night time as there is more room to move, and less soothing rocking motions to pacify him.

    1 Day Old:

    • You’ve waited 9 long months to meet your baby, and now she’s here, all she seems to do is sleep. Newborns live up to the old adage of “sleeping like a baby”. Wakefulness in the first few hours after birth, followed by a long stretch, often up to 24 hours, of intermittent sleep, is the normal newborn pattern. You will still need to wake your baby for feeds every 3-4 hours whether breast or formula feeding.  
    • At this point, the gestational age of your child would determine the sleep patterns or lack thereof. If your child was born early, use the EDD (expected date of delivery) as the true age to find out where your child might be within this timeline. So for example, if your baby was born 3 weeks early then at 1 month your baby would be 1 week old.
    • If your baby was born early he will probably sleep his way through the days until he comes to his due date, when he may suddenly wake up and you wonder what happened.
    • Your newborn is likely to fall asleep soon immediately after – and sometimes during – a feed.
    • Sleep is very erratic at this age and doesn't follow a pattern because basically the newborn's brain is still maturing. There is NOTHING a parent can do at this time to manipulate sleep. Don't force what is not possible.
    • If you watch your newborn while she is sleeping you will notice that there are times when, under her eyelids, her eyes flick frantically from side to side and she may frown, flutter suck, or wriggle her fingers and toes. This is REM or “dream” sleep. Unlike adults and older babies, newborns fall directly into REM sleep, a pattern that continues until they are around three months old.  
    • Your baby will spend half of their sleeping time in REM sleep, whereas you (as an adult) spend only a quarter of your sleeping time in REM.
    • Your newborn sleeps in cycles of around 50 or 60 minutes of REM (dream) and non-REM (deep) sleep. After each cycle your baby has a partial awakening – this brief moment of semi-awakeness may startle your baby and make him wake up even more .
    • Towards the morning the proportions of non-REM and REM reverse, so that much of your baby’s early-morning sleep is REM. This explains why babies often wake up more during that time.
    • It is recommended that your baby sleep in the same room as you for the first six months.
    • Your newborn may sleep for as little as 11 hours to 20 hours out of 24.
    • She may make sudden, jerky, twitchy movements in her sleep. This is due to a normal reflex called the “startle” or Moro reflex. It sometimes occurs for no apparent reason, although often it is a response to a loud noise or a sudden jolt. It may seem worrying to you, but the reflex is actually a reassuring sign that your baby’s neurological system is functioning well.
    • Almost undetectable breathing is also normal. In deep sleep your baby can breathe very quietly and look completely still.
    • A baby sleeping bag is a safer alternative to traditional sheets as your baby cannot wriggle under them; however, during these early newborn weeks it can be effective to use a sheet and blanket, as this helps your baby feel more secure when he is tucked in snugly. Then from 6-8 weeks you can change to using a sleeping bag as your baby develops more mobility.

    Tip: We believe this recognition is a wonderful sign: Clearly, awareness is growing about the value of reading to babies in utero. Establishing a practice of family storytime by reading to babies before and after birth is the first step in fostering in our children a lifelong love of reading and learning, as well as family and social bonding. It’s our dream that someday soon this will be a universal practice with lasting benefits for families everywhere.

    Disclaimer
    The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

    Dr Unnati Chavda
    (Promoting pregnancy wellness)
    www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

     

    Food Memories Shaped Before Birth I

    Influence of Breastfeeding

    Exposure to a flavor in mothers’ milk influences the infants’ liking and acceptance of that flavor. This is seen when the flavor is encountered in a food.

    In one study, researchers found that breast-fed infants were more accepting of peaches than formula-fed infants. It is likely that the increased acceptance of fruit could be due to more exposure to fruit flavors, due to their mothers eating more fruits during lactation. If mothers eat fruits and vegetables, breast-fed infants will be exposed to these dietary choices by experiencing the flavors in the mothers’ milk. This increased exposure to various flavors contributes to greater fruit and vegetable consumption in childhood.

    Infants develop long-lasting dietary preferences very early in life. Pregnant and nursing women are encouraged to consume nutritious diets with a variety of flavors. Infants of women who do not breastfeed should be exposed to a variety of flavors, especially those associated with fruits and vegetables.

    Women can give their unborn children a taste for healthy food by eating lots of vegetables while pregnant, scientists have discovered.

    A series of studies has shown that what a woman eats during pregnancy and breastfeeding can significantly influence the type of food that her baby will prefer when being weaned.

    The notorious difficulty of teaching very young children to eat healthy green vegetables rather than sweet, fatty food can be overcome if mothers realise how important it is to eat well themselves, scientists said.

    "The good news is research shows that babies and their palates can learn very early on about good food, even before their first mouthful," said Julie Mennella, a developmental biologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia.

    "Even before a child eats their first mouthful of food, they are learning about flavour through the amniotic fluid in the womb, and later through their mother's milk," Dr Mennella said.

    "The message is, eat the healthy food that you enjoy and when the baby is old enough to start weaning, they will already be familiar with those flavours," she told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.

    One study involving 46 babies aged between six months and a year found that those whose mothers drank carrot juice while pregnant or during the first three months of breastfeeding ate almost twice as much carrot-flavoured cereal as those whose mothers did not.

    "It was the first time the babies ate solid food, and it shows how we are primed by our earliest exposures," Dr Mennella said.

    Even bottle-fed babies can quickly learn to like the taste of vegetables if they are exposed to the flavour while weaning.

    "Regardless of whether a child is breast or bottle-fed, it can still learn as soon as it starts to wean. If they are repeatedly exposed to fruit and vegetables early on, then they soon begin to accept these foods," Dr Mennella said.

    "Eat a variety of healthy foods that you enjoy while pregnant and breastfeeding and once your child starts eating solid foods give them repeated opportunities to taste these foods so they can grow to learn to like its tastes."

    Babies learn about food flavours as early as the womb and mothers who regularly eat vegetables while pregnant can help to prevent their children from becoming fussy eaters later on, scientists have discovered.

    A series of studies has shown that what a woman eats during pregnancy and breast feeding can significantly influence the type of food that her baby will prefer when being weaned.

    The notorious difficulty of teaching very young children to eat healthy green vegetables rather than sweet, fatty food can be overcome if mothers realise how important it is to eat well themselves, scientists said.

    “The good news is research shows that babies and their palates can learn very early on about good food, even before their first mouthful,” said Julie Mennella, a developmental biologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia.

    “Even before a child eats their first mouthful of food, they are learning about flavour through the amniotic fluid in the womb, and later through their mother's milk,” Dr Mennella said.

    “The message is, eat the healthy food that you enjoy and when the baby is old enough to start weaning, they will already be familiar with those flavours,” she told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.

    One study involving 46 babies aged between six months and a year found that those whose mothers drank carrot juice regularly while pregnant or during the first three months of breast feeding ate almost twice as much carrot-flavoured cereal as those whose mothers did not drink carrot juice.

    “It was the first time the babies ate solid food, and it shows how we are primed by our earliest exposures. The research shows that children are getting sensory information in the womb and through their mothers' milk,” Dr Mennella said.

    Even bottle-fed babies can quickly learn to like the taste of vegetables if they are exposed to the flavour while weaning. In the space of just eight days, weaning babies will increase their consumption of green beans by more than a half if they are regularly given the food.

    “Regardless of whether a child is breast or bottle-fed, it can still learn as soon as it starts to wean. If they are repeatedly exposed to fruit and vegetables early on, then they soon begin to accept these foods,” Dr Mennella said.

    “By the age of two, there is no reason why a child should not have the same varied diet as an adult,” she told the meeting.

    Babies are genetically programmed to like the taste of sweet, fatty foods because these are the flavours associated with high calories, whereas many vegetables can taste bitter because of the natural compounds made by plants  to prevent being eaten.

    “Babies are already biologically hardwired to be attracted to foods containing sugar and salt, but they have to be exposed to fruit and vegetables if they are to learn to accept and like these flavours,” Dr Mennella said.

    “In the environment we evolved in, both sugars and salts were scarce. We are inherently trained biologically to like [the taste of] sweet and salt. Sweet is a signal for energy, the predominant taste of mother's milk. Salt is meat and minerals,” she said.

    “My advice is: eat a variety of healthy foods that you enjoy while pregnant and breast feeding and once your child starts eating solid foods give them repeated opportunities to taste these foods so they can grow to learn to like its tastes.

    ”Looking at food doesn't work; they have to taste the food!  Be a good role model,“ Dr Mennella said.

    The food industry is preying on this natural preference for sweet things by adding sugar to foods aimed at children, which makes it even more difficult for them to say ”no“, Dr Mennella said.

    ”You cannot underestimate the power of sweets. It gives children a rush. In moderation, they are fine. But they need to consume a variety of food to lead a healthy life,“ she said.

    ”During the first months, what they are learning about food sets the stage for their long-term habits and health,“ she added.

    Disclaimer
    The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

    Dr Unnati Chavda
    (Promoting pregnancy wellness)
    www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

     

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    Monday, October 13, 2014

    Food Memories Shaped Before Birth

    Want your child to love veggies? Start early. Very early. Research shows that what a woman eats during pregnancy not only nourishes her baby in the womb, but may shape food preferences later in life.

    At 21 weeks after conception, a developing baby weighs about as much as a can of Coke — and he or she can taste it, too. Still in the womb, the growing baby gulps down several ounces of amniotic fluid daily. That fluid surrounding the baby is actually flavored by the foods and beverages the mother has eaten in the last few hours.

    "Things like vanilla, carrot, garlic, anise, mint — these are some of the flavors that have been shown to be transmitted to amniotic fluid or mother's milk," there isn't a single flavor they have found that doesn't show up in utero.

    The Scent Of Amniotic Fluid

    To determine if flavors are passed from the mother to the the baby via the amniotic fluid, researchers gave women garlic capsules or sugar capsules before taking a routine sample of their amniotic fluid — and then asked a panel of people to smell the samples.

    Cows that graze on wild garlic and onion, or who live in stinking barns, produce milk with distinct flavors.

    Not only is the amniotic fluid and breast milk in humans flavored by food just like cows, but memories of these flavors are formed even before birth. That could result in preferences for these foods or odors for a lifetime. In other words, if you eat broccoli while you're pregnant, there's a much better chance your baby will like broccoli.

    Want to give birth to a baby with a taste for the finer, greener, or more adventurous things in life? Consider eating them yourself. Research has found that while in utero babies are not only nourished by their mother's meals, they also learn from them.

    Baby Shower Food with a Feminine Touch

    While in the womb, a baby is surrounded by amniotic fluid, which it also imbibes — and tastes. Researchers from the Monell Chemical Sense Center tested this concept by giving pregnant women garlic or sugar capsules before taking a sample of amniotic fluid. Then they asked a group of people to smell the samples. The panel was easily able to pick out which of the women had ingested the garlic capsules. The amniotic fluid retained garlicky characteristics. Many other flavors and scents have also shown up in amniotic fluid and breast milk. These flavors help to form the kinds of food that babies will prefer to eat once they are born. Researchers hypothesize that babies remember these flavors on some level.

    Baby Shower Food with a Masculine Edge

    A group of pregnant women was divided into three factions. One group drank carrot juice every day during their pregnancies, the second drank carrot juice while breastfeeding, and the third ate no carrots or carrot juice at all. When the children began eating solid foods, they were given cereal either made with water or carrot juice. Researchers found that the babies who had been exposed to carrot while in the womb or while drinking breast milk ate more of the carrot cereal. Julie Mennella, a researcher with the Monnell Center, told that this makes evolutionary sense. It is easiest for a mother to feed her baby what she likes to eat as that is the food that is most at hand. So it is in the baby's best interest that it like that food.

    Amniotic fluid samples were obtained from 10 pregnant women undergoing routine amniocentesis procedure. Approximately 45 min prior to the procedure, five of the women ingested placebo capsules, whereas the remaining five ingested capsules containing the essential oil of garlic. Randomly selected pairs of samples, one from a woman who ingested garlic and the other from a woman who ingested placebo capsules, were then evaluated by a sensory panel of adults. The odor of the amniotic fluid obtained from four of the five women who had ingested the garlic capsules was judged to be stronger or more like garlic than the paired samples collected from the women consuming placebo capsules. Thus, garlic ingestion by pregnant women significantly alters the odor of their amniotic fluid.

    Flavors from the mother’s diet during pregnancy are transmitted to amniotic fluid and swallowed by the fetus. Consequently, the types of food eaten by women during pregnancy and, hence, the flavor principles of their culture may be experienced by the infants before their first exposure to solid foods. Some of these same flavors will later be experienced by infants in breast milk, a liquid that, like amniotic fluid, comprises flavors that directly reflect the foods, spices, and beverages eaten by the mother. The present study tested the hypothesis that experience with a flavor in amniotic fluid or breast milk modifies the infants’ acceptance and enjoyment of similarly flavored foods at weaning.

    Pregnant women who planned on breast-feeding their infants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups. The women consumed either 300 mL of carrot juice or water for 4 days per week for 3 consecutive weeks during the last trimester of pregnancy and then again during the first 2 months of lactation. The mothers in 1 group drank carrot juice during pregnancy and water during lactation; mothers in a second group drank water during pregnancy and carrot juice during lactation, whereas those in the control group drank water during both pregnancy and lactation. Approximately 4 weeks after the mothers began complementing their infants’ diet with cereal and before the infants had ever been fed foods or juices containing the flavor of carrots, the infants were videotaped as they fed, in counterbalanced order, cereal prepared with water during 1 test session and cereal prepared with carrot juice during another. Immediately after each session, the mothers rated their infants’ enjoyment of the food on a 9-point scale.

    The results demonstrated that the infants who had exposure to the flavor of carrots in either amniotic fluid or breast milk behaved differently in response to that flavor in a food base than did nonexposed control infants. Specifically, previously exposed infants exhibited fewer negative facial expressions while feeding the carrot-flavored cereal compared with the plain cereal, whereas control infants whose mothers drank water during pregnancy and lactation exhibited no such difference. Moreover, those infants who were exposed to carrots prenatally were perceived by their mothers as enjoying the carrot-flavored cereal more compared with the plain cereal. Although these same tendencies were observed for the amount of cereal consumed and the length of the feeds, these findings were not statistically significant.

    Prenatal and early postnatal exposure to a flavor enhanced the infants’ enjoyment of that flavor in solid foods during weaning. These very early flavor experiences may provide the foundation for cultural and ethnic differences in cuisine.

    Toughout human history, what a woman experiences during pregnancy and lactation has been believed to somehow influence her child’s character for a lifetime.1 For example, stresses or shocks experienced by the pregnant mother, as well as faulty diets, were assumed to cause mental imbalances in the child. That this notion extends to early postnatal life is suggested by the rich folklore that surrounded the choice of wet nurses. Before the 1800s, many believed that the lactating mother or wet nurse, through her milk, provided the infant with not only nourishment but characteristics of her personality, such as her ideas, intelligence, speech, and emotional qualities.

    During the past few decades, a series of experiments demonstrated that fetal learning does indeed occur. The fetus not only learns the speech characteristics of the mother prenatally, but shortly after birth, infants prefer their mother’s voice, a passage recited to them prenatally, and the theme music of a soap opera watched by their mothers during pregnancy. The ability to detect other sensory stimuli, such as tastes and smells, also seems to be developed before birth.

    Within days of birth, human infants will orient toward the odor of their own amniotic fluid, which suggests that prenatal sensory experiences can bias the newborn’s behaviors and preferences. Moreover, the environment from which the newborn came, the amnion, contains compounds derived from flavors of foods eaten by the pregnant mother.Such exposure to dietary transmitted flavors (eg, garlic, anise) in amniotic fluid has been shown to influence the newborn’s facial, mouthing, and orienting responses to the flavor in the short-term. Because some of these same flavors will later be experienced in breast milk, the fetus and breast-fed infant experience the flavors of their mother’s diet before their first exposure to these flavors insolid foods. The present study expands on these findings and provides the first experimental evidence in humans that prenatal flavor experiences enhance the acceptance and enjoyment of similarly flavored foods during weaning. It also shows that postnatal exposure has similar consequences. Thus, very early flavor experiences may provide the foundation for cultural and ethnic differences in cuisine.

     

    Disclaimer
    The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

    Dr Unnati Chavda
    (Promoting pregnancy wellness)
    www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

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    Wednesday, August 13, 2014

    Communicate With Your Unborn Baby I

    Prenatal singing  is a therapy aimed for pregnant women and their future children. It is mainly taught through exercises based on singing, but also on body positions, pregnant massages and soft-sport exercises. This practice can contribute to a vibrant pregnancy for the woman, while bringing many benefits to the in-utero baby as well.

    Why would one take Prenatal singing classes?

    It’s essential to know that, of the five senses human beings have, the first developed is hearing. Indeed, the child, still in the belly, cannot see, smelling odors, talk, and touches only the wall surrounding them. In contrast, hearing may develop particularly well with a little attention. The singing of the mother to her child will create a new world around it. Many scientists have shown that, for example, rock music speeds up an in-utero baby’s’ cardio-rhythm, showing signs of nervousness, while, by contrast, classical music seems to sooth. Premature children also recover faster thanks to the voice link they have created with their mother.

    Prenatal singing is equally important for both the mother and the baby, it helps creates a special relational link between the two. It helps relax them, making them work their breath, which creates oxygenating of the baby, as well as the mother, who will generally have less breathing capacity during pregnancy. Among the benefits brought to the unborn baby, are: better reactions face with stress; recognition of various sounds and their reproduction; stimulation of motricity (stimulation of connections between neurons); a good memory (the memory work begins to register in fetal cells).

    Remember that you do not sing to become a singer, the child has no criterion of a voice’s beauty, this is coming from our society but for them it is just his mother’s (and father’s) voice and this is the very first contact between you and the baby. The father’s deep voice is also important. In fact, men are an octave below women and their deep voice, which is also calming, penetrates more easily through the uterine wall.

    The father’s role during the childbirth will consist in helping the woman through breathing and bringing her in a kind of bubble where his voice will calm and reassure.

    It is towards the end of the fourth month of pregnancy that the fetus’s outer ear formation usually ends, (the inner ear a little before), and it is therefore recommended to start practicing prenatal singing at this time. However, some women want to practice singing even before the baby can hear. Even if the sounds can’t be picked up through his ears, babies can perceive sound through vibrations. These vibrations cross the skeleton of the mother-to-be and are transmitted into the amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby. The mother's pelvis is like a soundboard, sounds and vibrations are transmitted to the baby better and louder than if we would simply put a CD on, because the sounds come from the inside.

    Music enhances prenatal bonding. One of the most intimate and pleasurable events experienced by the baby in the womb is his mother’s singing. It is also one of the first dialogues exchanged between mother and child. Songs that communicate love, acceptance, and welcome are most reassuring to the baby. This is a two way process whereby the mother and child form a close attachment, developing trust, a feeling of safety and a sense of belonging. All other relationships will build on the quality of this first exchange. If we are nurtured lovingly with respect and consistency, then we will most likely treat others in the same manner.

    The personality of the baby is being formed in utero.

    The baby does not want to be in a constant stressful environment and cannot be in an environment where development and learning is a struggle. Though it is hard to keep a fetus in a completely stress-free environment, a baby can be pacified in the womb by music, and in some cases the stages of labor were even prolonged by soothing music therapy.

    The baby in the uterus hears the voice of his mother, he rekindles with it after birth and it is his best milestone. The skin of the foetus perceives vibrations long before his auditory system is developed. Without knowing it, the mother and the father produce, with their voice, a sound envelope that will undoubtedly leave a sensorial print on their child.


    Affective bond
    Not only the vibrations of our voice reach the baby, the affective climate does too. The mother varies the pitch, intensity and tone of her voice whether she talks to her child or not, and depending on her mood and spirits. Her spoken voice is like a song charged with affectionate messages. The vibrations of her singing voice are even more palpable and are perceived like nice micro-massages by both the mother and the child. The songs suggested in pre-natal singing workshops, whether they are soft or energetic, often thematic, offer moments of significant sharing and nourish the baby’s emotional life.


    Stimulation through rhythm and resonance
    Rhythm is part of the life of the foetus. Very early, he is stimulated by various beats. Your heartbeat, emotions, physical activity and tonus are all impacting on the baby’s heartbeat. The rocking motion, front-back or sideways, suggested during prenatal signing classes triggers an impulsion in the body that acts on the brain. The woman who swings and sings does not realize that such a simple movement can have an effect on many levels such as balance, memory, coordination and the baby’s well-being.


    Better space
    If the mother combines good posture and wide, deep and regular breathing, she gives her child more space and allows him to be more comfortable to grow in the uterus. The swing felt during the songs invites the baby to take his place in the middle of the pelvis. Furthermore, for the mother who regularly practices prenatal singing and who trains with low pitch sounds that diffuses in the pelvis, the relaxation of the tissues will benefit the positioning of the child. Very few cases of breeched baby happened to our regular participants.
    At birth, we are not surprised to see that the baby feels the need to find his beat and the voice of his mother when he is laying on her. When he hears her heartbeat and her voice again, he feels secured by the movement and vibration.


     

    Disclaimer
    The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

    Dr Unnati Chavda
    (Promoting pregnancy wellness)
    www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

     

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    Monday, August 11, 2014

    Communicate With Your Unborn Baby

    Pregnancy is a privileged time for singing as attention on the body is intense during these nine months. This physiological change requires an adaptation which is not always easy for the pregnant woman. Singing involves the whole body and singing during pregnancy enables pregnant women to connect better with body sensations, to understand better the pregnancy process as well as increasing body awareness which is essential during birth.

    Singing in pregnancy has numerous benefits for you and your unborn baby. Most people realize that singing is good for our health. But did you know it can help reduce pain, increase your oxygen levels and give your unborn baby a relaxing ‘sound massage’. These are just a few of the benefits that I’ll tell you about.

    At first singing and other sounds are felt as a vibration by your baby. The amniotic fluid he or she is surrounded by is a great conductor of sound vibration. Imagine listening to music or people speaking when your ears or head are below water (e.g. in the bath, swimming pool or ocean).

    Many scientific studies that have tried to investigate fetal response to sound generally give 18 - 20 weeks as the time babies begin to respond to sound. By that time the structure of the ear is complete, although development of auditory nerve pathways continue.

    According to one study, a few babies can respond to loud low-pitched sounds as early as 16 -18 weeks of pregnancy. By 27 weeks, most babies can hear low-pitched sounds but not high pitched ones. The hearing continues to develop and be refined as your baby matures.

    Singing encourages intra-uterine communication and closeness with the baby. It improves breathing with breathing exercises, stretches, pelvic movements. Singing exercises allows better control of the body and allows the various parts of the stomach to be discovered. Singing is not only for mothers, fathers can participate too.

    Prenatal singing promotes well-being throughout pregnancy. It helps the pregnant woman to feel better and to prepare herself for the birth through body exercices, breathwork, sounding, vocalization and a specific singing repertoire adapted to pregnancy, birth and post-natal.

    Prenatal singing during pregnancy deepens body awareness through various exercices such as :

    • development of vibration awareness when listening to sound and during vocal expression
    • body posture and postural self-support: feet, legs, abdominal muscles, back, expiratory muscles
    • exploring different ways of breathing, breath management and breath control
    • adjustment to the pelvic tilt
    • phonation

    Prenatal singing enables women to manage better their pregnancy and the births of their babies.

    Developping the bond with the baby in the womb

    Prenatal singing allows the mother to connect and resonate with her baby and establish a special relationship, strengthening ties between mother and baby.

    Singing during pregnancy produces vibrations which are beneficial to the baby’s physiological, emotional and psychological development and balance. The baby in utero is surrounded by many kinds of sounds and prenatal research studies show that during pregnancy the baby is very sensitive to them particularly the parent’s voice and that the baby is already reacting differently to low or high pitched sounds. The mother’s singing voice provides a gentle sound massage in the womb, promoting the baby’s feelings of well-being and healthy development. For the baby, the mother’s voice is the main point of reference before and after birth. This maternal vocal imprint will have a deep effect on the baby throughout life.

    The repertoire of songs specific to pregnancy such as lullaby, soothing baby songs or motherhood songs, some of which have been composed by Marie-Louise Aucher, enhance and support the contact, relationship and closeness between the mother and the baby in utero. It has been found that babies show preferences for certain songs. The physical well-being felt by the mother during prenatal singing exercises benefits the baby.

    Labour and birth

    Breathing is inseparable from singing and plays an important role during labour. Regular practice of a variety of exercises during pregnancy eases labour and prepares the mother for birth contractions. Sounds are made on the outbreath. This vocal sounding allows the pregnant woman to manage the flow of air very easily and at the same time benefits from the vibration of the sounds as they gently massage her pelvis. Supporting the birth process through sounding and vocalizations also help the mother to relax muscles, ease tensions and control pain. The sounds are chosen in relation to the scale of resonances used in psychophonie. This scale establishes a connection between notes and various parts of the body.

    Post-natal

    One of the close ties between mother and baby during pregnancy is the mother’s and father’s voices. Researches show that new born babies react particularly to the parent’s voice and many mothers who have practiced prenatal singing have reported that not only was their baby more sensitive to music and movements and showed certain preferences but also that the baby was soothed and comforted when listening to the songs that the mother sang during pregnancy. The mother singing to her new born also helps adjustment to the new environment.

    All the exercices practiced during pregnancy are then adapted to help the mother to reconnect with her body and continue to support her during the changes which are taking place after the birth.

    Communication with foetus through sensory stimulation :

    This is based on tactile and emotional relationships between the parents and the baby (caresses, gently pressure on the stomach, sound of voice, etc.). It encourages closeness through contact and communication between the baby and parents.

    The father can develop a strong bond and closeness with the baby using this method;

    It is done towards the end of the fourth month of pregnancy, from the first active movements of the baby.

     

    Disclaimer
    The sole purpose of these blogs is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, prevention or cure of any disease. If you have any serious, acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained doctor/health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. If you are seeking the medical advice of a trained Ayurvedic expert, call us or e mail.

    Dr Unnati Chavda
    (Promoting pregnancy wellness)
    www.ayurvedapanchkarma.in

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