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Prenatal Experience with the Maternal Voice

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Early Vocal Contact and Preterm Infant Brain Development

Abstract

Research studies over the past 40 years have established that the maternal voice is a prominent feature of the prenatal environment, that the fetus responds to it, and that prenatal learning carries over into early postnatal life. The primary aim of the chapter is to describe what is known through research about prenatal exposure to the mother’s voice, especially through audition. A second aim is to present a consideration of nonauditory experience such as the vestibular and, possibly, cutaneous sensations that are uniquely linked to auditory stimulation by the maternal voice. A third aim is to raise a question about the necessity of prenatal experience with the acoustic aspects of the maternal voice, given emerging data from deaf infants who receive cochlear implants many months after birth. The chapter concludes by considering implications for the care of hospitalized preterm infants who experience atypical experience with the mother’s voice and other sounds. Chapter conclusions are (1) fetal auditory experience with the mother’s voice begins around 24 weeks after conception, (2) the maternal voice is potentially a rich source of multimodal stimulation and information, and (3) for favorable postnatal development, the role that is played by very early exposure to the maternal voice is not yet understood.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Lutheran University, Department of Psychology, Tacoma, WA, USA

    Christine Moon

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  1. Christine Moon
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Correspondence to Christine Moon .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Researcher, Aosta, Italy

    Manuela Filippa

  2. Médecine et Réanimation du Nouveau-né Hôpital de Hautepierre, CHU, Strasbourg, France

    Pierre Kuhn

  3. Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Björn Westrup

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Moon, C. (2017). Prenatal Experience with the Maternal Voice. In: Filippa, M., Kuhn, P., Westrup, B. (eds) Early Vocal Contact and Preterm Infant Brain Development . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65077-7_2

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