New research findings on the ability of a fetus to recognize its mother's voice and even distinguish it from other female voices confirms that experiences in the womb help shape newborn preferences and behaviour.

"This is an extremely exciting finding that provides evidence of sustained attention, memory and learning by the fetus," says Dr Barbara Kisilevsky. "The fetuses learn about their mother's voice in the womb and then prefer it after birth. Our findings provide evidence that in-utero experience has an impact on newborn/infant behaviour and development and that voice recognition may play a role in mother-infant attachment."

Along with researchers at Zhejiang University, China, Dr. Kisilevsky, a Queen's University professor of nursing, tested 60 fetuses at term. Thirty fetuses were played a two-minute audiotape of their own mother reading a poem and 30 fetuses were played the voice of a female stranger reading the poem. The researchers found that the fetuses responded to their own mother's voice with heart-rate acceleration and to the stranger's voice with a heart-rate deceleration.

The findings also suggest that the foundation for speech perception and language acquisition are laid before birth.

In 2000, Dr. Kisilevsky's research team proved that fetuses hear by the
third trimester of pregnancy. >from *Fetus heart races when Mom reads poetry. New findings reveal fetuses recognize mother's voice in-utero*. may 9, 2003

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