How long can pregnant women tolerate noise?

Pregnant women need to pay attention to the quietness of their living environment during pregnancy, because noise will affect the development of the fetus and stimulate changes in the secretion of maternal hormones, which will lead to abnormal neurodevelopmental conditions in the fetus and affect the sleep quality of pregnant women. Therefore, we should provide pregnant women with a good living environment, reduce noise and high-decibel sounds to stimulate pregnant women, especially friends living in cities should stay away from noise.

Studies have shown that noise can stimulate the maternal hypothalamus, anterior pituitary, and ovarian axis system, causing reverse changes in maternal hormones and affecting the normal development of the fertilized egg. The stimulation of noise can cause changes in the mother's nerve cells, which in turn affects the normal development of the fetal nervous system. Other experts believe that noise can indirectly interfere with fetal development and even directly affect the fetal genes, causing mutations and malformations.

High-decibel noise can damage the fetus's auditory organs and reduce its hearing. If a pregnant mother is exposed to sounds above 85 decibels during pregnancy, such as the sound of a heavy truck stereo (which is about 90 decibels), the baby will lose his keen hearing after birth.

If infants are exposed to loud noise in the womb before birth, their ability to sense 400 Hz sounds is equivalent to one-third of those normal infants who have not been disturbed by noise.

The fetus' inner ear cochlea begins to grow and develop from the 20th week of pregnancy. Therefore, the fetus' inner ear cochlea, which is in the growth and development stage, is very susceptible to damage by low-frequency noise. Noise can also affect the weight of the fetus because it can disrupt the normal endocrine system of pregnant women, causing their pituitary gland to secrete too much oxytocin, which can cause uterine contractions and lead to miscarriage or premature birth.

The ideal sound environment during pregnancy is no less than 10 decibels and no more than 35 decibels. However, it is difficult for pregnant mothers in modern life to find such an environment. Pregnant women who are exposed to 50-80 decibels of noise for 2-4 hours a day will become mentally depressed and nervous, with faster breathing and heart rates, increased cardiopulmonary burden; dysfunction of the nervous system; headaches and insomnia; reduced function of the endocrine system, especially insufficient secretion of estrogen and thyroid hormone; impaired digestive function, making it difficult for pregnant women to obtain adequate nutrition; and decreased immune function, making pregnant women more susceptible to viral or bacterial infections. These are all important causes of fetal maldevelopment, low birth weight, mental retardation or physical organ malformations. Other studies have found that babies conceived and born in a noisy environment get sick an average of 2-4 times more often per year between the ages of 0-3 than other babies.

From this, it can be seen that in order to keep the mother and child safe, in addition to eating well and sleeping well, creating a noise-free and relatively quiet environment is also essential. Although it is still difficult to fully achieve this under the current national conditions and living conditions, pregnant mothers must be aware that "noise will affect eugenics" and try their best to create conditions in life and work to minimize the chances of exposure to noise. For example: those who have the conditions can temporarily change their place of residence; change their job type to get away from the noisy environment; reduce the number of times they go to downtown areas; avoid going to karaoke bars and other entertainment venues with loud noises; turn down the volume of the TV and tape recorder at home; move the bed away from the air conditioner and refrigerator; avoid frequent quarrels among family members, etc. These are all particularly important.

In short, for the normal development of the fetus, pregnant mothers must find ways to stay away from noise as much as possible, avoid going to airports, train stations, bus stations, karaoke bars, discos and other areas with serious noise pollution, and don't listen to deafening rock music at home.