In a recent video that went viral, a couple captured the moment when their baby was found on the ultrasound clapping to the classic, “If you’re happy, and you know, clap your hands.” Babies begin their lives right in the mother’s womb.
Before they enter the world, they are capable of doing amazing things right when they are in the womb. It’s not strange that babies can hear sounds and react to them while they are inside their mother. But there’s a lot more they do:
- Babies Can Open Their Eyes In The Womb:
Your baby could open its eyes somewhere around week 28. There won’t be much to see in there, but babies start reacting to light during the second trimester. That’s because it’s possible for bright light to filter through the abdomen. As it reaches the baby, it tries to move away from light, as has been established by the researchers. Babies try to turn away from light as early as 15 weeks. Bright light doesn’t harm the baby.
- Your Baby Can Smile While In The Womb:
It’s true. Babies can smile with the comfort they receive in the uterus. Sonography and 4D scans have discovered that babies can smile in the womb at around 26 weeks! Now, that already makes them cute.
- Babies Can Hiccup:
Babies can hiccup while they are still there in their mother’s tummy. The hiccups can start as early as the first trimester. Most women don’t feel their baby hiccups. But if you happen to be one of the lucky ones who can feel baby hiccups, it will happen much later in pregnancy and as a daily occurrence especially in the second half of the pregnancy.
- Babies Can Taste Food While In The Womb:
Did you know that your baby will start showing preference to specific flavors at as early as 15 weeks? While babies may not directly eat or taste the food, the taste of the food that you eat is detected in the amniotic fluid. Be it pungent flavors like garlic or ginger or sweet flavors, the amniotic fluid carries it for your baby. It is believed that it’s nature’s way of exposing the baby to a variety of flavors that he is going to taste once he enters the world. Babies get the taste as they swallow amniotic fluid. They swallow more fluid when it is sweet and less when it is bitter.
- Crying In The Womb:
When they can smile, why not cry in the womb? And they need to master this bit. It may sound a bit hard on you, but your baby might be crying inside you even as you read this post. The crying behaviors have been established by using ultrasound technology. At times, researchers have identified trembling bottom lips as the baby cries.
- Breathing Inside:
Your baby derives all the necessary oxygen from the umbilical cord. Your baby practices breathing even before he is born when he is as young as nine weeks. He starts showing motions of breathing by then. The first breath is prompted by a sudden change in both temperature and environment outside the mother’s womb. This is why it’s important to maintain the water temperature at that of body temperature if you are giving birth in a water pool.
