During my first pregnancy, a great friend gave my husband and I a book to read to our unborn child. Every night before going to bed, we would take turns reading this book. Baby Oh Baby The Places You'll Go is still embedded in my memory. I flipped the pages just so that baby#1 could see the pictures. (I know, rediculous.)
But here is the cool part...when we read this book to my son when he was a day old, a calmness and recognition of the book came over him that words can't explain.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter what book you read, just read. Especially as the mom-to-be. Your baby-to-be hears everything you say...including all the things you say when you get cut off by another driver. Reading a book is not only soothing for your baby-to-be, but it can also be soothing to the parents-to-be.
Besides, what's it going to hurt?
2 comments:
Hi there, I found what you posted really interesting, I am pregnant 21 weeks with my first child and I really want to do everything right. Is it too early to read books to my baby? I don't have a lot of access to books because I live in a non English speaking country, but there is a lot of stuff I could use from the web, do you reccommend sticking to one book or using several (as you mentioned your baby recognised the book when he was born) so would this mean it would be too confusing to read more than one to him/her? I will get this book though, its been reccommended to me quite a lot. Thank you
Hi anonymous,
Thanks for the interest in this post. While I am not a doctor or expert on the subject of reading to your unborn child, I can use my two pregnancies as experience to draw from. I happened to use the same book to read to both my unborn kids because (1) the book was a gift and (2) it is a book directed at an unborn child. However, I know that there are plenty of studies out there that show positive effects from reading to your baby in the womb. I just thought it was always cool to see if they would recognize the story after nine months of reading it...and what was cool for me was they did. But I have heard of many men reading the sports section of the news paper to their unborn child. I think the main idea is just to have your child get to know the calm sound of your voice. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!
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