Pregnancy tips Music and Fetal Development

I listened to some of my favorite music while I was pregnant since I didn't do a lot of physical activity. It's interesting that my daughter still listens and loves that same music now. This article talks about prenatal music and the continued debate about whether or not it really helps brain development:

early-pregnancy-tests.com

From the article:

Can music affect fetal brain development? If so, what musical composers, genre, or style will make my baby smarter, more creative, more sociable, or more...better?

These questions are certainly interesting ones for expectant couples. However, despite a rather suspect study suggesting that Mozart will help your baby's brain grow, the jury is out. The study in question was associated with a Baby-Mozart brain-enhancing product that putatively noted that the particular structure of, say, a Mozart string quartet offered more "formative" stimulation than other genres or even other classical composers like Bach or Beethoven. Such claims have been soundly debunked. But that does not mean that prenatal music or concert-going does not have benefits - its simply difficult to prove the case!

In theory, prenatal sonic stimulation may yield some positive results, including many of the same benefits that have been more scientifically-established by the prenatal consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids. Such purported benefits include enhanced attention spans, improved sleep patterns, increased cognitive development, and sharper language skills. Unfortunately, various products that make affirmative claims about the impact of music on fetal development during pregnancy have scant evidence (mostly anecdotal) upon which to base such claims. The fact is, there may be too many variables to sort out the impact of song and sound, including diet, general health, the consumption of various foods containing Omega-3s or other vital nutrients, or even ambient sound - the pitch and tenor of voices, dialogue, and daily life. And what of reading to your unborn baby? In effect, fetal development many be too complex, too multi-faceted to ever determine if music - let alone a specific style or genre - can affect your baby in a certain way. A few more cautious doctors suggest that an unborn baby's physical reactions (heart rates, movements) to music may stem from discomfort rather than comfort.