Welham Girls' School

The mother was once regarded as only a ‘vehicle’ and conduit for nutrition and waste for the foetus living in the uterus. To facilitate the foetus, a mother forms a placenta, a temporary organ that develops inside the uterus during pregnancy, (in simple words a bag in which the foetus lives till the gestation period is over) to provide it with nutrition and oxygen for growth and removes metabolic wastes. The baby is attached to the mother through the umbilical cord, which arises from the placenta. The syncytiotrophoblast is the transporting and hormone-producing epithelium of the placenta which constitutes the primary barrier for maternal–foetal exchange. This nutrient transporter influences the placenta capacity to transfer nutrients from the mother to the foetus. While this is a small part of the biological role of a mother, research shows that her role during the gestation goes beyond just the physical development of the child.

The overall results from the research paper “Ultrasonographic Investigation of Human Fetus Responses to Maternal Communicative and Non-communicative Stimuli” says that the maternal touch on the abdomen produces a greater range of foetal behaviours than the voice alone. The foetus showed more head, arms, and mouth movements to the maternal touch on the abdomen and reduced their movements when they were only subject to maternal voice.  Not only does a foetus in the 3rd trimester yawn more when the abdomen was stimulated by maternal touch in comparison to the mother’s voice, a younger foetus in the 2nd trimester in the study also show an earlier response to touch.

Even when we tend to sing or talk to the foetus during pregnancy as an attempt to communicate, many reports claim that the activity of the foetus inside the uterus including kicking or foetal positioning-like movements increase as a response to physical stimulation like stroking and touching.

 The bond between a mother and a child is formed long before the birth. It is through her voice and her touch that a child knows of her presence and bonds with her.