Okay, so Isabelle’s dish last week on aural fixations for our little ones has got me thinking... is it really possible for sound to influence or even entertain our adorable little unborn entities in utero?

Whether it’s poetry or classical music or Mama’s very own voice, the idea of pre-natal communication is an intriguing one. Sure, we know babies’ sense of hearing is gearing up well before the delivery, but does that mean the ability to process sound is there, too? Even more intriguing – might we use this early aural stimulation to our own post-partum advantage?

There are lots of white-noise gadgets and womb-sound simulations out there. One of the most compelling is The Womb Effect from Sound Science, which promises that playing its pitch-perfect recreation of mommy’s uterine music to a newborn will actually help her drift off to sleep, calm her fussing, and generally just relax her. (You can click on a clip to hear it here, and it's actually pretty cool-sounding)

To be honest, I have my doubts whether this could work. It sure does sound like one of those too-good-to-be-true temptations exhausted parents succumb to when their colicky or just plain crabby babies have them at their wits’ end.

So have any of you Mamas out there actually tried one of these devices or CDs? Do they really have an effect? I’m definitely open to the idea – not just for selfish reasons, but also since I fear that a crying newborn might prevent Ben from getting a good night’s sleep, too – but I’d really love to hear the voice of experience before I plunge into the watery world of my womb...

XOXO

Eliza