The baby in the womb is constantly busy. And some of these activities can be seen during routine screening.
Your baby has the most important job in the world in the nine months that you carry it with you. He is busy growing, which is very difficult. After all, you need to turn into a big and beautiful little man of just two cells. At first it is the size of a poppy dewdrop, then a pea, but now the date of the first screening has come and you can finally see your future child on an ultrasound scan. And he can give you a message – if he’s lucky. What does a child do during an ultrasound scan?
Crying
But not from pain. The fetus does not feel pain at all until the 24th week. In this case, the baby can secrete a stress hormone, but does not experience unpleasant sensations. This is because the neural circuits that connect the brain to receptors have not yet been formed. But the baby can still cry. He learns to control muscles, including his face. Intrauterine facial expressions – that’s what it is. On ultrasound, you can catch a “crying” face – the lower lip is slightly protruding, the corners of the lips are lowered, the eyebrows are frowned. But this does not mean that the baby does not like something. These are still reflex movements.
Is laughing
Smiles, even laughs – the baby does this the closer to the 35th week, the more often. And the first smile of the child was caught on an ultrasound scan as early as the 14th week of the mother’s pregnancy. A tiny nose wrinkles, a baby sticks out its tongue, lips move apart in a characteristic laughing movement – sometimes it is even possible to capture this movement in a photo. Some experts are inclined to believe that even an intrauterine smile indicates that the baby is happy, despite the fact that the baby gives out the first conscious smile only at the age of about one and a half months (after birth, of course). Because a smile is the natural state of a person’s face, in a state of complete harmony with himself and the world around him.
Flips over
From 15-20 weeks, the baby begins to move. And during the ultrasound, he can “play hide and seek” with the scanner: dodge it, turn so that it is not possible to see what gender the baby will be born with. This is because the baby is looking for the most comfortable position for himself. And here mom is lying on her back, not moving – well, who will like it? So the baby begins to spin, making himself comfortable. And mom may be upset that the baby is always turning to the scanner, sorry, booty.
Listens
We cannot hear the sound carried by ultrasonic waves. But the fetus hears, and they are quite loud for him. The researchers say the sound is about 100 decibels, which can be compared to the loudness of a train arriving at a subway station. Therefore, it is believed that it is better not to direct the sensor directly to the face or to the area of the ears of the fetus, unless there are compelling reasons for this, for example, suspicions of anomalies in the development of the face and skull. But the baby is already surrounded by a lot of sounds: the beat of his mother’s heart, the murmur of blood and, sorry, her intestines. Therefore, the baby is not afraid, but listens: the sound during ultrasound differs from the usual acoustic background.
Gestures
Katy Perry recently shared the first “hello” from her unborn daughter – the baby made an obscene gesture and slipped the pen directly under the scanner sensor.
In general, expectant mothers see a lot on monitors when they come for an ultrasound scan: babies clap their hands, wave their spread fingers, fold their palms together or even curl their fingers into a fig. Or they simply suck a finger – by this gesture, by the way, one can understand who will be born: left-handed or right-handed.
Hiccups
Even without an ultrasound, a mother can feel this: rhythmic movements in the abdomen, a cross between vibration, thumping and jerking. The baby hiccups for various reasons: this way he prepares for the fact that he will soon have to breathe on his own, and also trains natural movements – swallowing and sucking. In addition, the child can swallow excess amniotic fluid, which will then come out in this way – with hiccups. If the baby has the urge to hiccup at the very moment when the mother came to the ultrasound scan, she will be able to see it.