Pregnancy music: the effect on unborn babies

The concept that playing classical music to your bump made your child more intelligent became popular in the late 1990s, spawning an industry that sold brain-boosting music to pregnant mums^3,4. But the reality is that there’s little proof it’ll make your offspring any brighter. The legend springs from psychologist Frances Rauscher's study into American college students, where she found a small link between IQ and listening to Mozart. How the jump was made from students to unborn babies is something of a mystery, but may just be down to our natural desire to do what’s best for our children³.

Although Mozart may not make your little one any smarter, it may make their brain more active. Babies in the womb have shown increased brain activity when exposed to music⁵.

There has been a great deal of research into the effect of a mother’s voice on her unborn child. When a mother reads aloud, her voice has a calming effect on her unborn or newborn baby, decreasing their heart rate⁵. Intonation in a voice has been proved to shape auditory learning, leading to her newborn recognising, and forming a preference for, their mother’s voice⁶. And not only does her voice affect the development of her baby’s auditory system, but amazingly, it also impacts their social and emotional development⁵.

Despite a lack of evidence that classical music creates cleverer babies, interesting studies have shown that music may have a part to play in brain development before birth. European research in 2013, for example, showed that exposing an unborn baby to music had a long-term effect on their brain⁷. They found that newborn babies could remember a version of 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' played to them in the womb and responded differently when alternative versions were played. These memories created before they were born, lasted until they were four months old⁷.

Incredibly, other studies have shown that babies are born with the innate ability to detect musical beats⁸. And even more importantly, some research suggests that soothing music may encourage premature babies to feed, and could improve their vital signs like heart rate and O2 saturation levels⁹.

Singing lullabies to babies has always come naturally to parents and carers, and it may well be that there are benefits from listening to music in the womb that are yet to be fully understood.

As an interesting aside, research from 2014 shows that pregnant women are more sensitive to music than those who aren’t pregnant, exhibiting an increase in blood pressure in response¹⁰.

In the third trimester your baby will definitely be able to hear the music you play⁵. And while gentle sounds, like lullabies, are designed to be soothing, unborn babies are startled by very loud or erratic noises, and too much noise may be stressful11. Make sure the volume is not too high and that your music choice is fairly melodic – perhaps wait a few more years before introducing your baby to your favourite thrash metal tracks!