Study: Newborns cry with accent learned in womb
From ABC News, November 5, one more problem for pro-aborts claiming preborns aren’t human:
Think newborns just eat, sleep and wail the same way across the world? That’s not so, according to a new study which found that babies cry with an accent within the first week of life.
By recording cries of 60 babies born to French or German parents, researchers discovered that babies cry with the same “prosody” or melody used in their native language by the 2nd day of life.
French newborns in the study ended their cries with a lilt at the end typically heard in French.
German babies, however, started their cries intensely and dropped off at the end – much like the emphasis their German parents put in a sentence, according to a study published Thursday in Current Biology.
Experts in child development say the most exciting part of this discovery is not that infants recognize the melody of their language, but that the newborns may have the ability to use what they heard in the womb to then control their cries.
[HT: Nathan WS]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
When pregnant with my second, I read the coolest book about prenatal studies including a behavioral one on twins followed by ultrasound to 5 years of age–guess what? Personality traits and the twins interaction styles remained constant. One about the newborns’ cries found that the pitch is actually based on the fundamental frequency of the mother’s voice. Fascinating stuff.
I wasn’t suprised by this, but it made me say, “Awww” anyways. Babies can also smell in the womb. I’m not sure how, but I read it in a book.
I’m glad that science is progressing to help us understand development more, not just for human rights reasons, but for our abilities as humans to comprehend how we grow and how language affects us. :)
Oh, wait: I thought that I’d ask here:
Does anyone have a daughter in preschool? I need advice on books to get for a three-year-old to four-year-old girl.
Sorry that that’s random, but I don’t have any concept of what to buy and this seems like a place with lots of parents. ;)
Vannah, I think the development of the sense of smell would have to be linked to taste, as these little ones (fetuses) swallow the amniotic fluid and there have been reports of women giving birth after a garlicky meal & the amniotic fluid smells of garlic. Same for spicy chile peppers, etc. –the babies begin to taste them (and will continue to if breastfed) long before they have one themselves! :)
Vannah, it depends on how much she has been read to so far. My youngest girls, Arielle will be 4 tomorrow and Amanda is 5, love Dr. Seuss, the Berenstein Bears, etc. The “Bob Books” are easy for a little one to carry around and teach basic phonics/reading skills.
In addition, little girls seem to love anything with fairy themes and gorgeous pictures. Browsing through a children’s bookstore should give you some really great ideas. Some of the BEST books for this age group have no words at all…. just pictures, which is great because this is an age group that loves to pretend to “read” and they can do that with these books.
If she likes dogs the “Good Dog Carl” series is adorable… a big Rottweiler who babysits the baby in all sorts of different situations… again, no words except the first and last pages of the story, she would be able to “read” them herself.
Hope that helps!
This will stun the choice camp: tissue can learn different language accents. Of course, they’ll pretend not to notice-or if they do, back to the beginning and ending of all their arguements-Its a choice! Arg. Sorry. I’ll end the rant.
I’m thankful ABC covered this…and thanks for sharing this as well.
Thanks, Elisabeth. She said on her card (it’s for a Gift of Reading Tree, where you buy books for members of the community for Christmas) that she liked princesses, but I’ll look into the books that you mentioned.
Stephanie:
I hope that they don’t try to turn this into a “choice” thing. I hope that for once they can just put aside their differences with unborn people and appreciate that this is a miracle and a wonderful development in how we understand language and how it affects our lives! :)
Birth, Minnow.
And I’m simply stunned by the fact that you still managed to inject your stupid bigotry into this…
Hi, Vannah!
I tried to answer you in the “Quote of the day” column, but it didn´t work, so I´m trying it there.
Yes, I read this blog nearly every day and I think it is realy great, but I rarely write in the discussions. I think my reading skills in English are much better then the writing ones :)
I´ m surprised and happy you know Czech Republic. It is small country in middle Europe (10 millions inhabitants). It used to be Czechoslovakia, but in 1993 the country split up in two independent countries, Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.
I´ m afraid I have no good news about abortion laws in our country. Abortion was legalized in 1957 (like the most communist countries, we were forced to accept this law by Soviet Union). Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks of preganancy. Most people in Czech Republic (75%) are pro-abortion. During the communist regime all pro-life efforts were illegal, the state propaganda said abortions are OK and people got used to it :( The first pro-life organizations, crisis pregnancy centres, etc. originated in the 90s and things are changing very slowly. But we won´ t give it up, becouse the saved lives are worth it.
Vannah, thank you very much for your interest. Actually, I should thank for whole this blog. It is a big source of inspiration and encouragement for me.
Eva,
Keep fighting the good fight!! Thank you for your comment. :)
Eva, my best friend in high school was of Czechoslovakian descent. I’m sorry that your country has such an unfortunate past of fighting against life. Hopefully with your help, my country (the USA) will be able to change our ways and learn from the mistakes of another while helping the world become a more hospitable place for everyone.
Your English is good. I think that it’s better than mine since I’m always finding typos here and there… :)
I’m so glad that you’re working for peace and human rights over in Europe. I wasn’t aware that the communists felt that way about abortion. Is Europe largely a pro-choice continent? I know that Poland is pro-life and defies all of the lies that say that a pro-life country can’t make it; they seem to be doing just fine and, in fact, I noticed that they only became pro-life after overthrowing totalitarianism.
As far as the Czech Republic goes, I think that most Americans are aware that it’s a smaller country in Eastern Europe and that it was once under communist rule, but I don’t think that most of us know the particulars, such as population count or general lifestyles.
But keep up the good work! I hope that you comment more. I clicked on your page- I couldn’t read anything, but it looked like a nice website (and a really cool language!)!
:)
Vannah,
Any country which must support the whole of its population using government resources will push to control the population of that country, because they must. This is a well-established pattern of behavior for socialist nations (see: China). This is another reason that we conservatives tend to resist expanded government programs as incremental socialism possibly leading to communism. It’s not that we hate poor people, or don’t want to pay taxes, or anything that people like BS’er or Minnow say, it’s that we can look at other countries in the world that have tried such things already and see how terribly they failed, and how those countries had to nearly wage war on their own citizens to stay afloat (it was common for women in the USSR to have 8+ abortions in their lifetime).
Hi, Eva! First, your English is excellent. I have been in the Czech Republic (granted, it WAS Czechoslovakia at the time). I was traveling to visit my cousins in Tarnow, Poland. Honestly, I am sure if I had a chance to sit down and talk with them these days, they would be shocked and horrified to learn that the U.S. was going down the path towards socialism.
Keep up the good work and I hope you continue to have your needs for encouragement met here.
Vannah… see if you can find “The Paper Bag Princess”… it’s cute and funny.
Interesting conversation!
Elisabeth,
I have a Polish friend who grew up in Poland and Germany and then moved to the US as a teen. She is shocked and horrified at the current events in the USA which are signaling the rise of socialism.
Vannah,
I believe that Poland is probably the most “Catholic” of the countries of the European Union (see: europa.eu/abc/european_countries/index_en.htm) and with the influence of Pope John Paul II very pro-life. Unfortunately the secular culture of Western Europe is seeping in. I have found that many Polish Americans are deeply religious and strongly pro-life.
Eva,
Your English is very understandable. It is nice to hear your point of view.
xalisae @ 1:10,
I couldn’t agree more.
Vannah,
Book suggestions –
“I Wear My Tutu Everywhere” – one of my daughter’s favorites, very cute. Also, any Richard Scarry book. There are lots of little detailed pictures that children will spend hours looking at. They love any book that has FLAPS with pictures underneath to open and close. I recall that there are some with Sesame Street characters, and some with “Arthur” the TV cartoon character.
Lastly, the “Little Bear” series is very nice.
Eva…so off topic but wanted to say “hi” since my family is of recent Czech descent. My great grandparents immigrated from Prague through Ellis Island in 1912. We called her “mema” and she died when I was 11 so I knew her very well. Maiden name was Nemetz but they Americanized it to Nemec. My mother,my sister and I collect glass pieces at antique stores that are stamped with “Czechoslovakia”. Sorry to stray off topic but just wanted to give a shout out to my heritage!
Or Minnow, we are people who understand that if you don’t learn from history you are doomed to repeat it. Socialism is not communism but they are cousins. My sister and quite a few cousins live in Canada and let me tell you from their mouths, their healthcare system is nothing to be desired. My cousin injured his arm (he is a medical researcher and Ph.D. with lotsa connections) They told him he would have to wait 6 weeks before he could see the surgeon.
He pulled some strings and got in after two weeks where they immediately scheduled surgery. They told him if he had waited the 6 weeks he would have lost use of his arm permanently. And his arm is invaluable to bio-medical technologies he works on!
I needed my wisdom teeth out and had it done a week later. My brother-in-law needed his wisdom teeth out and had to wait 6 months. SIX MONTHS! We all want people to be healthy and to be taken care of but socialized anything never works! (need I remind you of bankrupt social security that was supposed to be VOLUNTARY when it first started? And all the other government run programs that are bleeding money and failing to produce good results!)
Too bad that good laugh doesn’t refute anything being said here with facts. You’re such a joke, maybe he was just laughing at you.
It takes a very disturbed person to be banned by a site but continue to come back every day under new monikers. Seriously, Virginia, get help.
Thank you guys so much for the book suggestions! I’m taking their name down for when I go Christmas-hunting. :)
Virginia, you know absolutely nothing about what you’re talking about. Even if you did, I would be very distrubed that you continue to return to a place where you have been banned again and again.
Normal people don’t do that. Get help.
I agree, Sydney. My husband is Canadian. He tells me all kinds of ‘horror stories’ about the Canadian Health Care System. I lived in Canada for 6 months, but didn’t have to go to the hospital for anything. I do know that my sister-in-law had to wait THREE MONTHS to get in to see a doctor to find out why her periods had stopped. She had taken I don’t know how many home pregnancy tests-all negative, but when she finally got in for a blood test..turned out she WAS pregnant. Our nephew is two months older than our daughter :)
This is an amazing discovery. This only proves that they can hear us even while they are still in her mother’s womb. Then it is really true that we can read them good books and let them listen to good music even before they are born. Thank you for this post.
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Hi, everybody! Thank you for your lovely commentaries, it’ s very nice. I apologise I didn’ t answer yesterday, but it’ s the time-leg (I hope this is the right word). It was evening when I wrote my commentary, but I think in the USA was around noon.
Vannah, the truth is that in communist countries was abortion made legal much earlier than in the rest of the world. This is why I always laugh when I hear somebody saying that abortion is sign of freedom or that it is a human right. In the 60s abortion was legal in nearly all communist countries (including the Soviet Union) and illegal in nearly all free countries (including the USA). So it is clear that abortion has NOTHING to do with freedom or human rights.
There are three countries with pro-life law in Europe – Ireland, Malta and Poland. In Ireland and Malta abortion was never legalized. In Poland was abortion legalized under such circumstances as in our country, but when the communist regime collapsed, the Poles owerturned this law. It’ s the only former communist country which managed it.
Thank you everybody very much for your interest. I”d be pleased if we discus more, also on another issues. I know that today will your House of Representatives vote about Health Care Reform. You should know that pro-life people in Europe are praying for you.
My cousin lives in Vancouver and my sister and her Canadian husband and their four sons lived in Burlington Ontario, now live in St. John. I don’t know that they would agree with you that Canadians are “fiercely proud” of their healthcare system.
Do I feel bad for Americans going broke from medical bills? Yes! Do I worry it could happen to my family? yes. Does our system need some fixing? absolutely! But handing control over to the government is not going to fix it. The POST OFFICE is going bankrupt. Social security is going bankrupt. Look at the fraud rampant in welfare and medicaid, medicare etc…Look at the wasted dollars in education while our children perform worse and worse and learn less and less every year. Do you really trust the GOVERNMENT to fix things? The government who once allowed blacks to be enslaved and declared them 3/5 of a person? The government that now declares our youngest citizens non-persons and allows them to be ripped apart inside their mothers? I don’t trust government to be the answer.
This is an interesting story, even though I’m a bit skeptical about its truth.
But this doesn’t in any way justify making abortion illegal again in America even if it’s true. You forget that most abortions take place in the first trimester, long before a fetus could even develope such an ability if it existed.
What good is being able to recognize your mother’s voice in the womb if you’re born into abject poverty ?
“But this doesn’t in any way justify making abortion illegal again in America even if it’s true…What good is being able to recognize your mother’s voice in the womb if you’re born into abject poverty ”
But it does follow that if someone has the potential to grow up in abject poverty that abortion should be legal?
Mr. Berger,
WHEN an abortion is procured does not diminish WHAT that abortion does. Why does that even matter? Developing the ability to hear a mother’s voice and produce similar sounds is an ongoing and evolving process, Mr. Berger, not something that just magically happens the day after the first trimester is over. It’s called someone else’s life, and perhaps you should take that into account before advocating their murder.
According to Mr. Berger I could look at my son and say “The ability to operate a motor vehicle is something that MAY happen in his teenage years. But we’re very poor right now so it doesn’t matter. I’m going to post-natally abort him.”
So someone’s finances determine their worth? Someone’s abilities determine their worth? Sheesh…I must not be a human being at all since my husband and I are lower middle-class. I guess since I don’t drive a Lexus like everyone in our county and because we rent our home not own it…I must be a non-person. I have some abilities but I am not very good at basketball or baseball….oh let me just end it all now! My life has no value!
What absolute lunacy!
Robert! How have you been?
What good is being able to recognize your mother’s voice in the womb if you’re born into abject poverty ?
This is a very interesting question, mostly because I never considered one to have anything much to do with the other. I think about my own mother’s voice. I would rather hear her voice NOW, as a 26-year old woman, than live above the poverty level, if it came down to an either-or situation. As a child, I imagine I’d have given up just about anything to maintain the ability to hear my mother’s voice.
What good is living above the poverty level if you can’t hear your mother’s voice? Might as well ask that question. What good is money if you can’t do simple math? What good is hearing your mother’s voice if you will never grow to full adult height? What good is the ability to recognize musical patterns if you go to bed hungry at night? What good is anything, if its goodness is not matched by the world around it?
The good is what we live for, not merely an accessory to greatness, to perfection. It seems that, because the world is imperfect, the “good” in these things becomes great, not insignificant – at least that’s the way it seems to me.
I imagine that question was rhetorical, but I found it too interesting to leave alone. ;)
Oh and Robert, I thought of you not long ago! I had an extra free ticket to the London Phil at Avery Fisher Hall. Schubert’s 5th symphony and Mahler’s 4th. I ended up giving the ticket to an old woman I found waiting hopefully in the plaza, but I wished I’d been able to give it to you instead. :)
What I meant was that unless we do a heck of a lot more to help poor pregnant women, we are not going to stop them from having abortions.
It’s not that I want them to just because of their poverty, just that I realize that unless more is done to help them, they won’t stop having abortions, even if it becomes illegal again.
Just telling women “You may not have an abortion” won’t cut it. It just won’t work.
That’s why I’m so disgusted by the hypocrisy of conservative politicians who are determined to make abortion illegal yet consistently vote to
reduce or eliminate programs to help the poor.
They want to have their cake and eat it,too.
It’s wrong to deny poor women funding for abortions; they’re the ones who can least afford to take decent care of their children.
And the people who oppose abortion expect them to take care of their children whether they have the means to or not.
And adoption is not the solution;it doesn’t work either. Saying that conservatives donate more money to charities is a cop out, because this doesn’t provide anywhere near enough money to help the poor.
Don’t get me wrong;I’m all for charities. But they just aren’t enough.
By the way, the concert was by the London Symphony orchestra, not the London Philharmonic, which is a completely different orchestra.
London has five symphony orchestras; the London symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia orchestra(not Philharmonic), the Royal Philharmonic, and the BBC symphony orchestra, while New York has only one full time orchestra, the New York Philharmonic.
Hi Robert Berger,
If you interested in pro-life discussions – you seem to be since you continue to return to Jill’s from time to time – stop by an abortion clinic and talk to one of the pro-life counselors standing outside. They hear arguments such as your everyday but somehow still continue to convince poor women to have their babies and get them the support they need. And ask the counselors if these women ever return and tell them how much they regret not having the abortion. You may get a different perspective from those on the front lines.
Take care.
You’re right, Robert! I was careless – I was thinking NY Phil because of the venue, but I knew it was a London orchestra. Guess I really should have brought you along instead of that random old lady! I wouldn’t be sitting here wondering, “Crap, did I make that mistake when talking to anyone else?” right now.
I am not a conservative politician. I definitely don’t vote to reduce or eliminate programs to help the poor. I was just trying to answer your rhetorical question, because I found it a very interesting one. ;)