The joy of welcoming a new life is multi-fold and everything that a baby does never cease to surprise us! Foetal development is detected early on through baby position in the womb, and can help us to understand the different abilities that a baby in the womb has! But you must have wondered what your baby is up to in the womb, and it has always been shrouded in mystery. But not anymore! With advancement in science, you can now delve deeper into how your little one spends time inside, whether your baby is sleeping, or just snuggling.
Here are 11 answers to some common questions that we believe will show how babies are much advanced than you think!
Baby in Womb: Things You Need to Know
Baby hiccups in womb?
Babies generally hiccup after the 25th week, and can be felt as a small rhythmic movement. However, it must be understood that not all babies hiccup in the womb, and most women do not feel their foetuses hiccupping either. While foetal hiccups are a natural thing and indicate a healthy pregnancy, baby hiccups can be of a concern when it begins to occur more frequently, especially if it occurs daily or more than four times a day after the 28th While there is no medical reason that justifies the hiccupping of foetuses, frequent hiccupping is often attributed to the tightening of umbilical cord and lack of oxygen, which is when you must consult your healthcare provider immediately.
Do babies cry in the womb?
While a foetus does not actually shed tears in the womb, 3D ultrasound scans have proven that some of them do indulge in what can be called ‘silent crying’. This is marked by the quivering of the lips, gasping, and depressing their tongues while opening their mouths. But given that foetuses are submerged in the amniotic fluid, there is no possible way of hearing them cry. This can be noticed in the 28th week of your pregnancy.
How do babies breathe in the womb?
Lungs develop only in the 35th–36th week of pregnancy. Babies take ‘practice breaths’ in the womb, which is basically inhaling the amniotic fluid, and it is not the same as breathing. This is simply because they are surrounded by amniotic fluid in the womb, and are not exposed to oxygen as such to breathe regularly. In fact, it is the mother who breathes for the child—the oxygen is carried into the bloodstream via the umbilical cord, and carbon dioxide is released in the same manner. A baby takes her first breath only after birth.
Do babies poop in the womb?
Given that babies receive food and nutrients from the mother, it is a natural thing to assume that they poop while in the womb, especially when digestive system develops in the tenth to fifteenth week. After all, your baby needs food to grow! But their excreta in the form of toxins are often taken care of by the placenta, which transfers it back to the mother’s body for removal. It is believed that babies can poop after they’ve stayed in past the due date, which releases with the amniotic fluid when the water breaks. The first poop that a baby eliminates is usually after birth, and is a dark green/black sticky mass, known as meconium, which is nothing but the intestinal cells, hair, mucous, bile and other things they have swallowed in the womb. This usually happens in the one-two days that a baby is born.
Do Babies pee in the womb?
Babies develop digestive and renal functions by the end of the fifteenth week. That being said, babies urinate in the amniotic sac in itself. More importantly, they drink their urine because it ultimately mixes in the amniotic fluid. In fact, after a month or two, the amniotic fluid is basically their urine which they consume and urinate, and this cycle continues. While this could be gross, it is an important function to develop for it determines digestive reflux in babies, and is observed by doctors to make sure that they are developing right.
Can babies fart in the womb?
It is a common notion that farting is only about the discharge of gas. But essentially, gas is passed when certain bacteria in the gut oxidises the food in the system. Given that foetuses do not consume ‘proper food’ in the womb, and only sustain on the amniotic fluid, they do not consume the bacteria needed to far. It can be safely assumed that babies do not fart in the womb.
How soon can babies can hear in the womb?
A developing foetus detects myriads of sounds, and as most mothers can attest to this- they do respond via movements to different sounds. This is in contrast to the earlier notion that the womb was secured from noise. A foetus’s ears develop as early as the eighth week, and she is exposed to not only sound from your everyday life, but also from within the body, including normal processes such as the flowing of blood and even the heart pumping. Babies can also detect music, and it is often suggested to create a calm and stress-free environment while you communicate with your baby to bond with him. Foetuses have been known to calm down after listening to their mother’s voice, so talk away!
Babies can learn a language!
Foetuses can learn and retain new information, long before birth. New research does suggest that they develop this ability as early as 10 weeks. Given that the mother’s voice is amplified all over her body, they tend to pick up on the mother’s native tongue. In fact, they also develop the cognitive ability to distinguish between their mother’s native tongue, and a foreign language by the time they are born. This happens because a foetus tries to make sense of her mother’s voice, and helps them develop a pattern and retain the same information.
Can Babies see in the womb?
Babies cannot really see in the womb, for their retinas only fully develop till the seventh or the eighth month, and their eyes remain shut mostly. But a foetus can detect light from her mother’s womb, especially when exposed to sunlight or other light sources. Their vision is quite blurry, simply because the eye is a complex organ whose development continues well after birth. It is also limited due to the amniotic sac and the tissue which creates a red-coloured barrier. But it is suggested to expose the foetus to sunlight to aid in eye development.
How do babies eat and drink in the womb?
Foetuses do not have varied options to consume, and their platter mostly consists of the amniotic fluid. Most nutrients are transferred from the mother’s body via the placenta. However, research shows that babies do develop taste and other preferences from the womb itself. The taste of the food that a mother consumes makes its way to the amniotic fluid, and a baby familiarises himself with such flavours. And not surprisingly, they retain the preferences even later on in life, because it provides a psychological comfort of being safe, just as he was in the womb.
How do babies feel in the womb?
Research has shown that foetuses have the emotional and intuitive ability to understand when they are being loved. They can not only feel, but think and also remember certain emotions. In fact, bonding with your baby in the womb is a crucial element in the preparation of a new life. Communicating with your baby in the process of bonding, especially before birth, is an important pathway to their personality development. Since they can feel emotions, making them feel loved makes them believe that the world they are coming into is a safe place, and makes them trust their parents.
There you have it! But the crux of this advancement entails creating a safe and comforting environment for your bundle of joy not only after birth, but even when he is preparing his journey into this world.
