Study finds unborn babies can recognise their mother's touch

A mother's touch is often said to be crucial in helping her bond with her child, but new research suggests babies may even be able to recognise it while still in the womb.

Unborn infants have been recorded reaching out to touch the wall of the uterus in response to their mother caressing her bump during pregnancy, the Daily Mail reports.

Using three-dimensional ultrasound videos, scientists were able to watch how unborn children reacted to different people touching their mother’s abdomen.

The strongest response came when a mother rubbed her own stomach compared to when a stranger or the child’s father did, suggesting the infant recognised who was involved. It may also explain why mothers often feel their babies moving when they touch their stomach but someone else might not detect any motion.

Dr Viola Marx, a psychologist at the University of Dundee, was the lead author of the study, published in the journal Infant Behaviour And Development. She said: "Mothers spontaneously and also intentionally touch their abdomen during pregnancy, often to communicate with the foetus.

"Any stimulation can be beneficial to the development of the foetus and bonding of the mother, father and the foetus."

Dr Marx said previous research had shown unborn babies also respond when their mother talks to them, helping them recognise her voice after birth.

The researchers used so-called 4D sonography, which gives live 3D video of a baby in the womb, to study how 28 infants responded to touch by different people - the mother, father and a stranger.

Their study, which is published in the journal Infant Behavior and Development, found unborn babies were far more responsive in the third trimester to any touch than they were in the second trimester.

However, the babies tended to reach out and touch the wall of the uterus for longer when their mother rubbed her own abdomen compared to when there was no touch at all or if a stranger was touching.

The fetuses also touched themselves less during the mother’s touch compared to when a stranger was doing the rubbing.

Oddly, the unborn babies responded more to the stranger’s touch than the fathers.

Dr Emese Nagy, a reader in psychology also at the University of Dundee and senior author of the study, said this may be due to differences in the way father’s touched their partner’s abdomen.

It is possible that the fathers - worried about hurting the mother and child - touched far too gently while the stranger tended to copy what the mother did herself.

Dr Nagy said it is possible the babies were able to recognise their own mother’s touch in a number of ways but said more research was needed to understand this better.

"The mothers' touch is accompanied by the movement of her whole body," she explained. "It could also be the style of touch and the familiarity of the touch."

This article was first published on Daily Mail and is republished here with permission.