Using BabyPlus during the prenatal period enhances cognitive development.  The news seems to be buzzing right now about the fact that mothers should take omega-3 fatty acid during pregnancy for "brain development."  We are all saying the same thing!

First, what exactly are omega-3s?  With a small amount of research I was able to learn that they are fatty acids that are good for you.  Your body can't produce them, so you need to get them another way.  How can we get omega-3s into our diet?  Most articles mention flax seeds, walnuts, beans, some fish (such as salmon), olive oil  - even cod liver oil! (Please remember to first check with your health care provider to see what what he or she thinks.)

According to an archived article at webmd.com, "researchers found that infants born to mothers with higher blood levels of the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) at delivery had advanced levels of attention spans well into their second year of life. During the first six months of life, these infants were two months ahead of those babies whose mothers had lower DHA levels."  (two months ahead!)



You can read a great article about omega-3's and pregnancy at pregnancy-info.com by clicking on their picture to the left.



Or, go to www.dha.com  - "a dedicated resource for new and expectant mothers, healthcare professionals and media, which focuses on two vital nutrients for a baby’s development: DHA omega-3 and AA omega-6."

The importance of the prenatal period has never been more clear - your baby is impacted for a lifetime by your choices now.  This is a critical time in the development of your child.  Remember to be well-balanced and not to overdo anything!

BabyPlus is a developmentally appropriate curriculum that introduces patterns of sound to the prenatal child in the only language he or she understands - the language of the maternal heartbeat. 

As a baby begins to distinguish between the simple rhythmic sounds of BabyPlus from those of the mother's heartbeat, auditory learning begins. 

BabyPlus lessons are both simple and safe to use.  They are designed to be played for one hour, twice a day.  For optimal benefits, start using BabyPlus any time between 18-32 weeks of pregnancy.

Learn more by visiting our website - www.babyplus.com.

I am taking my prenatal vitamins - what else should I be doing?

You should use the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System to provide your baby with this wonderful prenatal learning opportunity.  Using BabyPlus while you are pregnant impacts your developing baby at the most critical time of life - during cognitive development.  This is one chance to give your baby this once in a lifetime learning opportunity.

"For their child's lifetime development, every parent should hear about this discovery, an innovation representing the single most significant step science has take toward increasing infant potential."  (Rene Van de Carr, M.D. author of While You Are Expecting)

Visit our website by clicking the logo:

Should you find out the sex of your unborn baby ahead of time?  I consider myself an easy going person who can appreciate all sides in most cases.  I can understand that wanting to know if you are having a boy or a girl can make things easier when preparing for his or her arrival.  However, I think I lean more towards the element of surprise.  Plus, what if you are a rare parent who paints the nursery pink and bring home a baby wrapped in blue?

I am not an ultrasound tech but with my first ultrasound, it was quite obvious we were having a boy.  I had a slight sense of disappointment that the surprise factor was gone.  With my second child, he was not going to let anyone have a peek!  In fact, I carried both so differently, we were almost 100% positive we were having a girl.  After he was born, I remember the doctor saying, "It's a boy!"  I was so out of it and exhausted, all I could say was, "It can't be a boy.  We only have girls names picked out."  In my defense, he was born a few weeks early so we hadn't made it to boys names.

If you look on the market today, you can take an ovulation test to find out the optimum time to conceive.  You can then take a pregnancy test and find out early if you're pregnant.  And now there's a test to find out the sex of your baby ahead of time.  I guess in a society where timing is everything and life must be carefully calculated out, this makes sense.  But what's happened to the fun of a doctor's surprise announcement? 

Maybe I'm old fashioned but in my opinion, the I think the surprise is part of the fun!

Olivia was the number one baby name in 2008 in six states, number two in seven and in the top six of the United States.  Olivia means from an olive tree or fruitful, full of dignity and full of beauty.  Also, extending an olive branch in our culture is an offer of peace.

I have a friend whose daughter's name is Olivia.  It was not the name she originally chose when she was pregnant.  After she was born, one of the big sisters said she looked like an olive because of her dark hair and olive complexion.  Thus, she was named Olivia.

The President of BabyPlus wrote a book titled Olivia's Outing named after her daughter. 
It's a sweet little story about a little girl's travels outside under her mom's watchful eye. 

Follow BabyPlus at www.twitter.com/babyplus and RT for a chance to win a signed copy.

Rev Your Child’s Brain Power With Rhythms - Part 2

(written by Marcia Ellett, June, 2009)



Nadine Gaab, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Boston, said in a recent USA Today article that babies can “learn about rhythm from hearing music in the womb, feeling the rhythm of a mother’s movements or listening to her heartbeat.”

And Daniel Levlin, author of This is Your Brain on Music, confirms “the auditory system of the fetus is fully functional about twenty weeks after conception.”



So whether babies are born with an innate understanding of rhythm or not, you can help them along. Exactly what can you do to stimulate early learning and a lifetime of music appreciation in your children? Here are a few suggestions:

• Use the BabyPlus curriculum while you’re expecting to introduce your baby to the sequential learning process through rhythm.
• Expose your little bundle of joy to music before and after he or she arrives. Levlin said from birth to age five is the opportune time to develop your child’s communication skills and musical aptitude. Exposing them to a variety of melodies and rhythms can also enhance your child’s listening skills.
• Consider enrolling your child in a weekly pre-school music program where they can experience the joy of having fun with music and song. They won’t even know they’re working on their brainpower.
• As they get older, nurture any interest they show in playing a musical instrument. There is strong evidence to suggest that students who play musical instruments tend to get better grades in core subjects such as math, science, reading and language arts, and they do better on standardized tests too.

Click on the BabyPlus logo below to go directly to the BabyPlus site to learn more about using the patented curriculum of heartbeat sounds while pregnant to benefit your baby for life!

Rev Your Child’s Brain Power With Rhythms - Part 1

(written by Marcia Ellett, June, 2009)



Research on babies, such as a recent study through the University of Amsterdam that measured brain activity of a group of infants in response to a pattern of drum beats, continues to mount evidence suggesting that your little tykes can follow and understand rhythms much as adults do.

If you think about it, rhythms are basic to almost every form of communication, including conversation, making them vital to childhood development and necessary for rearing the well-adjusted little ones you know and love.

That’s where you, as parents, come in.....

Exposing your children early and often to music and other forms of rhythm can have a positive and permanent effect on the inner workings of their noggins.

Translation: You will sharpen their senses and give them an intellectual edge when it comes to navigating life’s road from infancy through higher education and beyond.

Learn more about BabyPlus at www.babyplus.com.

Another happy BabyPlus parent!

Here are her comments:

"Our son  was born February 3rd 2009. He was a Babyplus baby, I religiously used Babyplus for the last 16 weeks of my pregnancy. In every lesson he was responding and kicking when I had the device on my tummy. He is so calm, so alert, he sleeps 10-12 hours (since week 8), and he rolled over at week 8. Everyone comments on his alertness and says he looks so much older than his age, because he really focuses on so many things. I am convinced that Babyplus has something to do with his demeanor. With our second child I am absolutely using this product!"

Please continue to send us emails about your experiences with your BabyPlus baby - we LOVE hearing from "our" parents!

Click on the parent testimonial picture to learn more about the great benefits of using BabyPlus while you are pregnant to benefit your baby for a lifetime!

I love reading parent testimonials.  However, I only get the summary of their experiences.  I don't get to experience the day to day observations of the benefits from using BabyPlus.  But now I do!

After work yesterday, I went over to the hospital to see my new niece.  She is absolutely adorable!  I couldn't believe how much hair she had, too!  Something else that was exciting to see already were the BabyPlus traits that I read so much about every day working in Customer Service.    

The most obvious, and I say it everytime I see newborn pictures that a families send in, BabyPlus babies have beautiful, glowing skin!  And she does!  

I also noticed that her hands were so relaxed.  I remember my boys having little clenched fists when they were born but hers were just open.  She also self soothed with her thumb within an hour of birth.  I see many BabyPlus parents report these aspects regarding their baby's hands after birth.

Another characteristic of many BabyPlus babies is being relaxed at birth.  My sister-in-law had a C-section and the doctor said that my niece must not have been expecting company that morning because she was asleep the whole time right until they pulled her out.  Then she cried for a bit (who wouldn't) and from then on, not a peep.  I'd call that relaxed!

I am anxious to talk to my sister-in-law today since she will be trying to breastfeed.  My sister-in-law did not tolerate the anesthetic and was sick pretty much the entire day.  They decided to wait until she rested and felt better.  I can't wait to see how quickly she catches on.  Everything else seems to be pointing in the direction of success!

Maybe I am biased being a proud new aunt or maybe it's because I see all the wonderful testimonials from BabyPlus families all over the world and notice the same in my niece, but she's pretty special and has a great start in life.  She's already trying to lift her head, so I think she's ready to take on the world!

Another successful Webinar from the BabyPlus Company...

Our guest panelist today was doula Stephanie Antunes, LCCE, CD(DONA), CHBE - author, speaker and founder - Discover Birth.  Stephanie gave a great explanation about the purpose of doulas and all a doula can offer.  Stephanie also answered so many questions from Webinar participants - questions we all wonder about doulas!

A BIG thank you to Stephanie for her help in our mission of education - we are proud of our ability to help women learn about pregnancy and their developing baby.

Click on the BabyPlus link to go to the archives of our Webinars:

November, 2008 - Learning in the Womb

December, 2008 - Pregnancy Fashion

March, 2009 - Nutrition During Pregnancy

We finally have our baby girl!  7 lbs, 13 oz and 20 inches long with lots of hair.  And she found her thumb immediately...sounds like the self soothing benefit of BabyPlus.  

I'm looking forward to having another niece and watching her grow up.  Of course, I'll always keep an eye out for all the BabyPlus baby traits she will exhibit as she grows!

Lionel Richie's grandchild Harlow is a BabyPlus baby!

Nicole Richie is pregnant with her second child.  We know she saw the tangible benefits with baby Harlow, so she is sure to use her BabyPlus again.

Moms everywhere know that a baby who sleeps well and nurses easily is a benefit to both parents and baby.  Using the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System while pregnant has benefits that last a lifetime.  Immediate benefits include a baby who will more readily nurse, has an increased ability to self-soothe, is more relaxed and alert at birth, and is more interactive and responsive.

We know these personality traits are something ALL parents would love - especially parents like Nicole Richie and Joel Madden!  We have found that many celebrities have used BabyPlus and recommend our curriculum to other celebrities.  The busy Hollywood on-the-go lifestyle is the perfect match for an easy-going baby!  Really, an easy-going baby is the perfect match for any parent - famous or not!

Click on the Hollywood sign to see the celebrities who have used BabyPlus.  Word of mouth happens with celebrities, too!

Click here to download a duplicate copy in English, Spanish or French. 

You can also download a Lesson Calendar to record your lessons and your baby's reactions.

More testing of BabyPlus using exciting new technology could be on the horizon...

It has just been announced that new, noninvasive electroencephalographic (EEG) technology for better interpreting the brain's electrical activity will become available in 18 months . . . a further safe way to detect important advantages between BabyPlus newborns and the norm.

This noninvasive approach--with even one BabyPlus infant and another not experiencing an enhanced sonic environment (with the use of the heartbeat curriculum) before birth--should reveal the extent to which certain areas in the brain are affected, as well as how rapidly they react to such input.

Since its 1988 pilot study BabyPlus has undergone highly successful evaluations for effectiveness, among them an independent 1999 clinical trial contrasting it with music played prenatally and a control group; these results appear on www.babyplus.com.  Another controlled, comparative study will soon begin through Indiana University and Clarian Hospital.

As science continues to improve analytical tools which complement skills testing for BabyPlus infants and children, these outcomes will appear in the major media and be posted on www.babyplus.com. 



Brent Logan, Director
Prenatal Institute  

When you are pregnant you naturally want to do everything you can for your unborn baby.  You eat right, receive proper medical care and avoid harmful elements.  A concept that is gaining more and more attention during pregnancy is the idea of prenatal learning.  Some people think that music is the way to go, some think it isn't necessary at all, and others use a prenatal curriculum such as BabyPlus. 

While music is an excellent tool after your baby is born, it is just too complex in the womb.  Sounds need to be broken down into more basic and simpler beats, such as the maternal heartbeat.  There are several studies regarding the importance of learning in the womb but as with any complex element, such as fetal development, there is still so much left to learn.  We are just tapping into the benefits.

An article at Pregnancytoday.com talks about different ways of communicating before birth.  Check it out here http://www.pregnancytoday.com/articles/facts-and-fun-resources/prenatal-learning-6435/2/.  There are some interesting viewpoints and support for learning in the womb.

It's very easy to get distracted and keep telling yourself that you'll do something later. 

How many of us continually put off taking care of something for whatever reason?  I know I am terribly guilty of procrastination but it's something that I have been working hard on for the past year.  I've learned that the anxiety of putting it off is just as bad, so I just jump in and make that awkward phone call or whatever it is that I'm avoiding. 

Procrastination seems harmless in most cases but what about putting off something important like your health?  We tell ourselves that we'll make that physical appointment when we have a day off, get around to making that call or many other reasons.  Maybe it's fear of what might be found or the embarrassment of knowing you've not taken care of yourself as well as you should have since you last saw your doctor.  It's important to make that appointment now! 

We moms are guilty of taking care of everyone else before we do ourselves, but if we don't take care of ourselves, we might not be around to take care of the ones we love.  So, right now, pick up your phone and call your doctor.  If you already have children, your babies need their mom.  If you don't have children yet, get in to make sure that you're in the best possible health to give them a great start when you do.  Don't put it off any longer!

Gwen Stefani's BabyPlus babies are so well behaved - they are even going on tour this summer with their parents.

Zuma’s been sticking with mom, but big brother Kingston, 3 this month, hit the road with dad Gavin Rossdale in early May.

Rossdale is currently on tour, while No Doubt went back on the road May 16th.

Bloggers have commented that they have seen 3 year old Kingston at the concerts.  Others have blogged about how well-behaved he is on the tour bus. 

Even Rossdale himself notes his son's great demeanor:  "He likes hanging out. He's so natural, so easy."  (People.com, originally posted Tuesday May 26, 2009).  Read all about this father/son traveling duo by clicking the People logo.

Then, click on the BabyPlus logo to go directly to our website to learn more about the positive benefits of BabyPlus.  The benefits are noticeable right at birth, then through the toddler years - all through life! 

I am going back to the basics of the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System...

First, what does "prenatal" even mean?

Prenatal means occurring or existing before birth. So, the "prenatal period" is the time of your pregnancy.

The BabyPlus curriculum is a series of 16 naturally derived sounds that resemble a mother's heartbeat. The rhythm of the sounds increases incrementally as the pregnancy progresses. The BabyPlus sounds introduce your child to a sequential learning process, built upon the natural rhythms of their own environment. 

So, this amazing learning opportunity for your baby is only available prenatally - during your pregnancy.  Don't wait...click on our logo to go to our website at www.babyplus.com to learn more about how BabyPlus will benefit your child and you.

In 2008, 55.1 percent of the 3.3 million mothers with children under a year old were in the labor force.

New parents are sometimes easy to spot by their bloodshot eyes and exhausted demeanor.  Although the birth of a child is a joyous event, many parents are taken aback by how exhausted they feel during the first year of parenthood.

An astounding 80% of BabyPlus parents consider their baby a good sleeper.  In fact,  68% of all BabyPlus babies began sleeping through the night by the age of 3 months.

Sleep studies estimate that sleep deprivation currently costs U.S. businesses close to $150 billion annually in absenteeism and lost productivity. 

Nancy Shark, executive director of the Better Sleep Council mentioned in a recently published article, “Our survey indicated that companies would be more productive and offices would be happier places if employees got more of the sleep they need.”

How great to work for an employer who is so concerned about your pregnancy and your baby that he or she provides a BabyPlus Prenatal Education System at no cost to you. 

It is a simple change that is yielding big results for participating companies.  To find out more about BabyPlus visit our website at www.babyplus.com or contact us directly at our U.S. headquarters (317)841-7570.  

Moms to Be - ask your boss for a BabyPlus today!

Everybody has an opinion!

Parents recommend everything from doctors to diaper cream.  Ask any mom, and she will tell you with complete confidence that one bottle type is better than another.  Or, that you absolutely should not use a certain type of lotion or stroller.  The many products available can make decisions confusing, so having a friend or relative recommend something can carry quite a bit of weight...

Well, BabyPlus parents are just as confident that the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System is a must-have for all pregnancies.  "Our" parents are adamant about the fact that the use of this early learning opportunity during the stages of fetal development will absolutely have a positive effect on your baby that lasts a lifetime.  We continually speak to parents who are truly puzzled that anyone would not use this opportunity for learning in the womb.  We agree!  In fact, our recent poll of BabyPlus parents indicated an incredible 97% would recommend BabyPlus to a friend.
 

Click on the link below to go to our website to read the many testimonials from parents who have given their developing baby this incredible opportunity during the very critical time in early cognitive formation.