Does listening to noise have any effect on pregnancy?

Women will do prenatal education during pregnancy. Will it have any effect if they listen to noise during pregnancy? Excessive exposure to noise by pregnant women will not only affect the physical health of the pregnant women, but also have a bad effect on the fetus. Prenatal education is to play some music to the fetus through prenatal education instruments, which can promote the development of the fetus, while noise will affect the blood supply of the fetus, and in severe cases it will affect the development of the fetal nervous system.

1. Does noise in early pregnancy affect the hearing of the fetus?

Noise in early pregnancy can affect the hearing of the fetus. Exposure to strong noise will not only harm the health of pregnant women, but also have many adverse effects on the fetus. Studies have shown that children born to mothers who were exposed to loud noise (above 95 decibels) during pregnancy have lower IQ levels than those who were not exposed to noise under the same conditions. The reason for this situation is most likely that the continuous noise causes frequent contractions of the uterus, affecting the blood supply to the fetus, and thus affecting the development of the fetal nervous system.

In addition, the impact of noise on the fetus is mainly reflected in the harm to the fetal hearing system. Studies have shown that pregnant women exposed to loud noise (above 100 decibels) during pregnancy are more likely to have hearing loss in their babies. This may be because the noise has an inhibitory effect on the fetus's developing auditory system.

The noise that the fetus receives is transmitted through the mother's auditory system, so expectant mothers are encouraged to use personal protective equipment such as earplugs to protect the fetus's auditory system.

Moreover, the noise received by the fetus is also transmitted through the mother's abdominal wall. When the pregnant woman's abdomen is exposed to strong noise, the fetus will also be exposed to strong noise. Although various tissues of the mother's abdominal wall, such as the uterus, amniotic fluid and other tissues, can protect the fetus to a certain extent, the effect is limited, especially for low-frequency sounds, there is almost no attenuation function, which makes the fetus's auditory system directly damaged by noise.

2. When does the fetus have hearing?

The fetal auditory organs actually develop very early. The auditory nerve begins to develop at around 6 weeks of fetal development. By 24 weeks, the morphology of the fetal cochlea and the differentiation of the auditory nerve are basically completed. Hearing begins at 15-20 weeks, and by 25 weeks of fetal development, hearing is almost the same as that of adults. At 28 weeks, the fetus has the ability to respond to sound stimuli, and this is expressed in four ways: fetal movement, fetal heart rate, changes in brain wave recordings, and galvanic skin reflex.

Newborns have an ability to orient themselves to sounds from birth. When the baby is awake, the parents make very soft rattling sounds next to the baby. The baby will then become alert, roll his eyes, and then turn his head in the direction of the sound. Sometimes the baby will even look for the thing that makes the sound. If you place the baby facing upwards and make a sound near one of his ears, the baby will still turn his head towards the direction of the sound. The baby can not only hear, but also look at the source of sound, which means that the nerves inside the two receptors of the eyes and ears are connected, which enables the newborn to better adapt to the environment.

Babies like to listen to the sound of people talking and don’t like noise. Because the sensory organs are already initially developed during the fetal period, all sounds received in the womb can be stored in the brain. The music for prenatal education and the conversations between parents and the fetus will be remembered in the brain of the fetus over time. When the baby is born, if you play prenatal education music or talk to the baby when he is crying, the baby will calm down quickly.