[Zanth]

SR60's on my end too. We pumped in plenty of classical and a bit of Annie Lennox and Howard Shore for good measure. When my son was born, one of the mechanisms to sooth him was to play Into the West.

 

[Jo-Vo]

I would definitely play some music that gives/improves a feeling for rhythm, like Swing, Big Band, certain kinds of Rockjazz/Fusion or something.

My drum teacher and his wife often went to concerts when she was pregnant and their daughter learned to play the drums really really fast (well, could also be geneticly...). Have you ever seen a three years old child playing the drums?
But I guess that weren't any heavy metal concerts, more likely to be Pop or Fusion or something.

Regards,
Jonas

 

[ClieOS]

I agree with Jonathan's comment that you shouldn't bombard a fetus with any vibration on purpose. Fetus requires a relatively stable environment for development and any external stimulant that stresses the fetus are bad news in my book. Remember, music is a cultural construct. All the fetus knows is it is subjected to sonic level vibration (that it shouldn't be exposed to naturally). If anything, you should allow your wife to be in relaxing mood as much as possible, which will help her maintain a stable emotion (and a more stable chemical environment in her body) which in term benefit the fetus.

*I am a biologist, though not working as one currently.

 

[yashicaman]

When my wife was with fetus, we just duct taped a stereo speaker to her bulging belly. (We had, had a big discussion on whether my wife should swallow a pair of ear buds that would be attached to her Ipod. She didn't think that would be too clever as she would eventually digest the ear buds and then she'd have to swallow a new pair every day or two). With the speaker duct taped in place, we bombarded the little devil...er...fetus...with lots of Frank Zappa, Mozart, Dave Matthews, Eagles, Beatles, Rossini, etc for several months. We were rewarded for our efforts when at age 3 he composed "The Porridge Song"and at age 4, "Yogourt Boy." We have been blessed with a veritable child prodigy.

With fetus number two, we repeated the process with a speaker duct taped to my wife's bulging belly. Again we choose great music and blasted it into the womb. This time, we were rewarded with a another boy who is also a musical genius. I was pleased to discover this when he was 4 in the shower sinigng "The Weiner Song." It sort of goes like this: "I'm washing my stinky weiner/washing it all clean/I'm putting soap on my stinky weiner/Now my weiner is clean!" My god, he sure is gifted!

Just duct tape a speaker to your wife's belly and play lots of music and you may too have a son or daughter who is a musical genius.

 

[craiglester]

When my wife was 6 mths Pregnant we went to see Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with Joshua Bell playing. He loved it, little fella was kicking away like Georgie Best in there.. Just as importantly, it should relax your wife also, and a less stressed mother is a good thing for baby

 

[Caribou679]

You should read Dianetics before you start playing with your baby's future!

regards,

 

[tke398]

I tried this a couple weeks ago with my 5 month old unborn twins. My Grado 325i's lay perfectly flat and each had their own driver to listen to. I played some Mozart, but nothing happened for about 45 minutes, so we gave up. I made sure the volume of the music was similiar to the level of my voice, so whether the sound came from the headphones or my mouth should be fine.

Maybe I should try Metallica's Death Magnentic next.

 

[robm321]

OMG the thread title cracked me up.

I'd go speakers. Anything around someone that age can be dangerous, but Mozart can help the brain develop.

 

[jonathanjong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robm321 /img/forum/go_quote.gif but Mozart can help the brain develop.

Sigh. I'm sounding like a broken record, but there is NO evidence that prenatal exposure to music of ANY KIND improves cognitive function. Ergo, there is NO POINT trying it. Add that to the POTENTIAL RISK of exposure, NO ONE should try this. I see why my colleagues who deal with the public are frustrated now.

It's so aggravating how hard it is to get people to listen, especially about stuff like this. The research shows that prenatal exposure to alcohol and smoking is straigntforwardly bad, while we're not so sure about cocaine. Yet people still react stronger against the cocaine than the alcohol/smoking. The research shows that smacking/beating your child is ALWAYS bad, but people keep coming up with reasons why it's OK when they do it. The research shows that...gah.

 

[QRanc]

Your wife should probably avoid riding in cars and walking as well, as the vibration caused by these activities may very well be harmful to your unborn child. You should also not talk to her or, more specifically her stomach. In, fact it would be best to keep her in a quiet sound proof room for the duration of the pregnancy. There is not evidence that sound of any kind is good for the baby, therefore it must be deemed EXTREMELY HARMFUL.

I say play the kid some music. Just don't crank it to 11. And take all the "qualified" opinions with a grain of salt. Sometimes all this "logic" takes the fun out of things.

 

[jonathanjong]

Bloody hell. I'm going to try to be clearer.

1. There is no evidence that playing music is beneficial.
2. There is some reason to believe that playing music via headphones to a foetus is detrimental.

So, why do it? For fun? You're going to put a child's health in jeopardy for FUN?

And I'm not offering "opinions" and "logic." I'm offering data. Data from research. The kind of research that shows that smoking is bad. Is that too "logical" and not fun?

And I'm not comparing sound to cocaine. In fact, the fact that you mentioned cocaine is a case in point. I tried to say that there is little evidence that cocaine is bad for the fetus, yes the public clings so strongly to the belief that it is. Most people think it's worse than alcohol or smoking. And there you are, insinuating that cocaine is bad for the fetus... Dangnabbit, this passing on research to the general public thing is aggravating.

 

[Wmcmanus]

My wife is not pregnant yet because, well, I don't have a wife. But that's not beyond the realm of possibility. I hope to have a wife one day, actually. Assuming that when and if such a lucky lady does arrive in my life, that she'll also be a willing incubator, we can together do our part to propagate the species. In the meantime and in celebration of this hope, I've been running a splitter out of my iPod, thus allowing me to listen to one pair of IEM's (with my ears) while simultaneously providing an aural stimulus to Mr. Johnson. The way I figure, you can never start too soon! Intelligent seeds make for intelligent crops.

 

[jonathanjong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've been running a splitter out of my iPod, thus allowing me to listen to one pair of IEM's (with my ears) while simultaneously providing an aural stimulus to Mr. Johnson. The way I figure, you can never start too soon! Intelligent seeds make for intelligent crops.

Phew, I thought I was the only one. Cept mine's called Benny.

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonathanjong /img/forum/go_quote.gif There is no rigourous evidence that this works. And we're not sure if it harms the child. We know that sound is amplified in the womb, due to the liquid. For obvious reasons, there isn't much research on this, but there are reasons to think that subjecting the fetus to sound in this way is harmful. NB: I'm an experimental psychologist, and I've done pretty extensive reading on this issue as part of a graduate course recently.

I work next to a neurological department; I myself am in cardiology. I asked the neuroscientists. Conclusion? Not enough data. Can't qualify an answer on fetal development. I asked the obstetricians, some are all for the practice and did it for their kids. Frustrated, I went to ask the physicists, a wacky fun bunch of guys. Their answer: Low decibels shouldn't harm the fetus and studies do show increased neural growth based on various rhythms such as those from Mozart. Ergo, Mozart may well be good during the most rigorous growth phase so long as the sound is not insane. Headphones would have LESS of an impact than speakers because of the amount of reduced bass sound waves which penetrate the tissues, mids and treble frequencies barely do and theoretically shouldn't be harmful in the least.

So, like good scientists with a fun streak, we are going to experiment! We are going to run some tests by dunking our heads in a liquid with a similar viscosity as amniotic fluid and then place a barrier between the headphones and our ears of about the same density and thickness of the abdominal wall. We are doing this for kicks and it should prove to be entertaining until we have to wash the goop off. We will measure the decibel levels accurately and then anecdotally between a group of 5 guys. If the decibel levels are less than a certain threshold the likelihood this could have any adverse affect is practically zero. Kinda like blaming that quasi-deaf aunt who has a nasally high pitched voice who yells at family gatherings while sitting next to the pregnant wife, that she caused your kid to have 13 toes and a tail. Sorry folks, it wasn't Auntie Gertrude who caused that mutation, you may want to look in the mirror, or have a sweet karyotype done. Someone somewhere may have been playing too close to the florescent green slime at the local lab.

 

[TopPop]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonathanjong /img/forum/go_quote.gif And I'm not comparing sound to cocaine. In fact, the fact that you mentioned cocaine is a case in point. I tried to say that there is little evidence that cocaine is bad for the fetus, yes the public clings so strongly to the belief that it is. Most people think it's worse than alcohol or smoking. And there you are, insinuating that cocaine is bad for the fetus... Dangnabbit, this passing on research to the general public thing is aggravating.

I'm calling horse *you-know-what* on this one.

Yeah, I'm sure it would be really healthy for the fetus if the mother dropped dead from a bad line. Try to pass that one by the local doctor: "No, no, Mrs. Smith, for God's sake, please don't even think about putting headphones near your developing child! Ever! ...hmm? What's that? Oh sure, that's just fine. Go ahead and do as much blow as you'd like. But stay away from moving air particles."