If this is your first pregnancy, I know that you are concerned about your infant's development.  Prenatal care is so important to not only your baby's infancy but to his health and welfare throughout his life.  One element of prenatal care should be the use of BabyPlus.  One mother of a BabyPlus child wrote recently on BabyCenter.com about her child's early benefits and her baby's development after birth.

It seems to live up to its claims!
As promised, my daughter (25 months) was born with her eyes wide open, relaxed, not crying, and nursed well in spite of being a few weeks early. Early on, many people commented on how alert she is, and now they comment on how friendly, happy, and verbally advanced she seems to be. My mother works with an early childhood education program and gave me developmental charts that professionals use, and my daughter seems to be off the charts cognitively and verbally, and somewhat ahead emotionally as well. We haven't really been pushing hard to teach her things, but she knows at least 10 colors, several shapes, and about half the alphabet and the numbers 1-9 on sight. She can count to 12 solidly, and sometimes tries to get up to about 20, is up to 4 word phrases, and engages in lots of pretend play. She doesn't get upset very easily, and if she is upset, she recovers very quickly. I don't know how much of this is just her nature, but when I read the descriptions on the BabyPlus website, I have to believe it had something to do with it. My only word of caution is that it was louder than I expected which was a little annoying and made be worry a bit about the volume for my daughter, but her hearing is just fine!
Michelle, mom of one, happy customer, Hawaii

Hi:  I’m Doria LaFlamme, Medical Accounts Manager for the BabyPlus Company.  I travel the country, attending many different healthcare conferences, where I represent BabyPlus to thousands of prenatal and postnatal health-care professionals, as well as expectant parents.  I’ve just returned from the National AWHONN Conference in Los Angeles and I can tell you that the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System caused quite the excitement!  Many of these health care professionals understand the benefit of early infant stimulation, which is exactly what BabyPlus provides.  In fact, several nurses have stated they are using the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System in the NICU, because they understand that premature babies have been taken from the natural environment (mom’s heartbeat)  during a critical period in prenatal development. Using BabyPlus replaces this stimlus for the continued development of the prenatal child.  I have many great stories that I will be sharing...

Look for future blogs from me, your “Feet on the Street”, as I will keep you posted about exciting news I uncover during my travels!

 

People are talking!   All the attention about early brain development during pregnancy, infant growth assessment and prenatal education is really becoming a topic for First-Time parents. Click on the forum above to read what parents are saying. And click on the link below to read one couple's week by week pregnancy progress. This couple used BabyPlus Prenatal Education System and they share those day by day experiences as well.

 Early brain development during pregnancy is a topic that is getting quite a bit of attention. This does not exactly guarantee a highly academic baby, but it does suggest that a baby can be more calm, can nurse more readily and later in life be more school ready. These babies have an improved sleeping schedule. There infant growth assessments are better. Watch the video about a family who used the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System and hear what they have to say.

Expectant mothers and pregnancy are our specialty here at BabyPlus!  Having a smart baby is great, but having a great infant sleeping schedule is (at times!) just as important

Here at the BabyPlus Company we know the prenatal development facts.  We know the importance of infant development.  We know the womb is NOT a "soundproof booth."  We know that the mother's heartbeat sounds are the only sounds a developing baby truly recognizes.

The ideas of prenatal care and a prenatal care curriculum seem to be ever growing.  The articles on prenatal development are many.  What is not disputed is the idea of baby development and baby stimulation after birth.  The amazing information for first-time parents is that learning actually begins IN THE WOMB.  We already know! 

I have recently been welcomed to the team at BabyPlus and have had the opportunity to learn so much about the benefits of infant stimulation that I had no idea about when I was pregnant with my two sons.  There is so much fascinating information available to new mothers that makes it such an exciting time to be pregnant!  I have had the opportunity in such a short time to hear the exciting feedback from happy parents all over the world as well as providing information to them.  I feel very lucky to be involved in educating new moms about the benefits of prenatal learning throughout the stages of pregnancy.  To me, I can't think of a better job!

Shelly K.

We have often been asked by women researching expectant mothers and pregnancy whether the BabyPlus Education Prenatal System will assist in the cognitive development of twins and triplets.  The answer to this is "yes".  We have had many mothers of twins and triplets use BabyPlus.  They have all been pleased with the results and have seen the same benefits  (enhanced infant sleeping schedule, proficiency in breast feeding, self soothing ability and improved school readiness) as the mothers of single babies.

Frequently, twins and triplets are born early and the mothers of babies who were not full term have seen amazing results.  We have had mothers of premature babies report that their babies are reaching milestones based on their birth age as opposed to their gestational age.  They have also reported shorter than average hospital stays as compared to other premature babies.

Kate White, Director of HR and Operations at the Jarrett Fertility Group writes:
"Our 15 year old fraternal twin daughters, Mary Ann and Christine, were born 5 weeks premature and have thrived since birth.  They both achieved every infant and toddler milestone on time or early.  They were both early proficient readers- before the start of kindergarten.  Their learning skills and academic strengths, kindergarten through 8th grade, were superlative.  Today, they are both High Honor students in their freshman class and are both recipients of a monetary academic scholarships based on their freshman placement tests.  In addition to academics, they are both accomplished in music (singing and piano) and are both above average athletes.  They (and their little sister Julia, also a BabyPlus beneficiary) are emotionally mature for their age.  Julia has also exhibited the same developmental attributes as the twins.  We sincerely believe that the early use of the BabyPlus curriculum helped their development and will continue to help them throughout life."

What are the most critical times in child development? Answer…… all times. I must preface with an however, the earlier the start, the better. In your first pregnancy first-time parents are never really sure what to do, and not have had the exposure as to whether or not there will be a proper infant sleeping schedule that develops down the road, or if they are going to be exhausted as first time parents.
 There are so many prenatal development facts to consider, which can be overwhelming. Are there really benefits of infant stimulation, is breast feeding beneficial to having a smart baby and infant development. As days go by and the week by week pregnancy progresses, it all begins to make sense, and then the special day comes when the little miracle is brought into this world.
Following the birth, after that day by day pregnancy is finally done, you can then begin to access what the critical times in child development are and if  you did in fact do some of the correct things during the critical period in Prenatal development. So, baby stimulation and baby development after birth may all tie directly in, but most likely begins during those critical periods in prenatal development.

Expectant mothers and overwhelmed dads, the BabyPlus prenatal care curriculum will help tremendously. 

I was at the pediatrician's office on Saturday morning, and I was thrilled to see a BabyPlus baby there.  She is actually the daughter of one of the pediatricians in the practice, and the nurses raved and raved about what a wonderful baby she is.  They see first-hand the benefits of infant stimulation.  Another doctor in the practice has decided to use it based on seeing this baby!  Little BabyPlus Baby was smiling, laughing, and cooing the entire time I was there.  According to the nurses, she entertains herself for long periods of time in her bouncy seat.  The doctors, nurse practitioner, and nurses said they recommend BabyPlus to the patients in the practice.  My pediatrician was thrilled with her infant sleeping schedule, too.  BabyPlus babies self-soothe, so great sleeping habits are already formed.  Another confirmation of what we strongly believe here at BabyPlus!

Expectant mothers and pregnancy are a little different today than they were years ago.
You lay the foundation for a healthy baby well before your child is born, and it’s never too early to start planning.  Good prenatal care and solid organization are  essential during the different stages of pregnancy. The next few months will be filled with wonder and joy, adjustments and changes, and they will also bring plenty of details and decisions to manage. We recognize that at the BabyPlus Company; visit Fit Pregnancy  and  Pregnancy Magazine (for a limited time) to find a coupon code where you can get your free Essential Pregnancy Organizer by coming back to The BabyPlus web site.

While on the BabyPlus web site, please take a few extra minutes to read some of the facts about learning in the womb, the benefits of infant stimulation, infant development, prenatal care, the critical period in prenatal development, baby stimulation, and of course all of the facts about The BabyPlus Prenatal Education System.
So, expectant mothers, we at the BabyPlus Company know that pregnancy is a wonderful thing, and we want to play a part in helping take some of those worries away.

BabyPlus - not a new idea - the Chinese have been doing it for thousands of years!

We have often been asked whether the BabyPlus curriculum is a new invention.  The research behind BabyPlus was actually done over twenty years ago.  However, the concept of prenatal learning is quite old.  It has its roots in ancient Chinese culture. The Chinese did not know the scientific reasons why what they called "Taikyo" helped their infants' brain development.  But they did think that this practice was helpful during the period of prenatal development.  The following is a more scientific explanation of why auditory stimulation is important during the critical period in prenatal development.

The ancient Chinese used to perform what they called Taikyo during pregnancy.  In essence, Taikyo involved talking and singing to their unborn children and patting on their expectant tummies. All of these practices are differing forms of auditory stimulation for the prenatal child. Expectant parents believed that Taikyo would result in having a smarter baby and provide them with an intellectual and emotional head-start.  As in so many things, it now seems that the ancient Chinese knew something it would take modern science thousands of years to prove.  Parents of all cultures have talked, sung, and played music to their unborn children for centuries. For most, this has been little more than a way to bond with their child before they are born.  But science is now discovering that there are many benefits of infant stimulation. 

According to Fred J. Schwartz, M.D., "a significant amount of learning takes place in the uterus. There is no doubt that intrauterine auditory stimuli contribute a large part of this environment.  Evidence points to the fact that learning extends back into the prenatal period, and that the sounds and rhythms in the womb may contain information important to early brain development during pregnancy.  The newborn can differentiate a recording of his own mother's prenatal womb sounds from a recording of another mother." Dr. Schwartz continues, "There is a vast amount of potential information available to the fetus that can be given in the playing of just one musical note or in singing or talking a single syllable.   The content of this sound is full of information and emotion.  These communicative processes which take place before and after birth contribute to the promotion of the child's physical development, behavioral characteristics, and level of intelligence.

The (connections) in the prenatal brain, as well as the infant brain, undergo learning dependant reorganization.  This process involves synaptic pruning, the regression of neural circuits, as well as the synaptic sprouting (development of new connections) of the developing brain.”  In the normal course of prenatal events, there is a substantial reduction in neurons and synaptic connections that occurs during the last trimester as well as a more modest reduction during childhood.  This is consistent with the observation of psychologists that infants and children may have enhanced behavioral abilities that diminish later in life.  Since fetal hearing is probably the major component of this learning dependent synaptic pruning and sprouting, the prenatal child is participating in a 2nd and 3rd trimester auditory amphitheater that is perhaps more important than any other classroom."

If an increased number of neurons (brain cells) and their beginning connections (axons and dendrites) are engaged during their most plastic and receptive developmental stage - the period of prenatal development - greater strength in the structure will result, much like exercising a muscle.  The goal of prenatal stimulation is to withstand the normal process by which 75-90% of all fetal brain cells atrophy (die) before birth.  No more brain cells are ever added - once a cell atrophies it is gone forever and all the active brain cells a person will ever have are present at birth.  By reducing fetal brain cell death, prenatal stimulation results in infants being born with enhanced mental architecture - a greater amount of brain material producing brain waves that function at a significantly more mature rate. Throughout life, this early advantage means the child will be better able to absorb and appreciate far more of its environment than a child who did not receive this advantage.

Dr. Marian Diamond has demonstrated that the offspring of rats reared in an enriched prenatal environment perform significantly better than other pups.  She has also shown that the cortex of the brain is thicker in these animals than in those without prenatal enrichment.
 
"Your baby's world inside the womb prepares her for life outside by providing a wide range of experiences that are crucial to her cognitive and sensory development.  During the last trimester, she's eavesdropping on your conversations, discerning the differences between male and female voices, and monitoring your moods.  In fact, during the final months, most of your baby's movements - as well as increases in her heart rate - are in response to specific noises, touches, changes in light, and other sensations.  At 32 weeks, an unborn baby will remember a piece of music that she hears and will be able to recognize it after birth.  In fact, after listening to this tune for some time in the womb, your baby will start "keeping the beat" by moving her body in sync with the music."

"It's exactly what we're talking about, says Rob Reiner (actor, director, and founder of the I Am Your Child Foundation), noting the now-or-never importance of nurturing from the earliest times.  It's no more possible to make up for lost opportunities in early brain development than to take a 21-year-old whose growth has been stunted by malnutrition and to expect by giving him a wonderfully nutritious diet from then on to have him become a strapping 6-footer.  Electrical connections get made in the brain during these early periods that don't get made later on.  As far as anybody knows, there's no way to fix it if it's not done at the beginning."

There are a number of systems and approaches available for prenatal auditory enrichment, ranging from classical music to the prenatal curriculum developed by Dr. Brent Logan, the modern day pioneer in this field.  Dr. Logan's BabyPlus Prenatal Education System is clearly the most developmentally appropriate, scientifically advanced and well-studied approach.  Dr. Logan's research has demonstrated the extraordinary postnatal benefits of the BabyPlus curriculum:  infants are born more alert and calm; they have earlier parental voice recognition and are strong at self-soothing leading to development of better early infant sleeping schedules; these children are proficient at early breast feeding, have longer attention spans and reach developmental milestones at younger ages as measured by various infant growth assessment tests (CLAMS and Vineland Social Maturity Scale). He has also shown that these infants demonstrate improved stress management and most profoundly, enjoy improved school readiness and stronger learning proficiency later in life. Further information about the benefits of prenatal auditory enrichment is available in the book Super Baby: Boost Your Baby's Potential from Conception to Year One by Sarah Brewer, M.D. (Thorsons, London), or on the web site www.babyplus.com.

A conscientious expectant mother today is certain to provide the proper nutritional environment for her developing child during the prenatal months. With her child’s long term physical development in mind, a responsible mother takes a prenatal vitamin and makes conscientious dietary choices. Similarly, the foundation for a child’s long-term brain development is being laid during these very same months. It now seems that a child’s long-term cognitive and learning skills can indeed be strengthened by certain safe, developmentally appropriate sounds.  The optimization of a child’s earliest environment actually encompasses not the “0 to 3” years we frequently read about, but truly “prenatal to 3” years of age.

This world we live in, and more importantly the world that our children will navigate, is becoming more complex and demanding.  As a society, we are obligated to strengthen our children for the future.  The best gift we as parents can individually bestow to our children is improved early school readiness and strong learning skills for their lifetime. It is time to revisit Taikyo.  

I am the Director of Development at the BabyPlus Company and working here is so much fun. I meet the most amazing parents and babies. The other day I was sent to New York to interview and video a BabyPlus family. Mom used the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System for all 3 of her children. At first they were skeptical about the benefits of infant stimulation. Their week by week pregnancy was filled with hope and anticipation about the benefits of learning in the womb. but with the birth of their first child all they hoped for came true. Their little girl's infant growth assessments were very high and her infant sleeping schedule was all a parent could hope for. Mom says breast feeding was a breeze. The infant development of all 3 of their children was the same. Mom and Dad are so glad that they were able to  something for their children during the most critical period in prenatal development.

But the most amazing part of this story is that dad was a New York police officer. He was at work on the morning of 9/11 and was just being dispatched down to Manhattan when the call came to his precinct that his wife was in labor. Now this was their first pregnancy and his Sargent of course told him to go to the hospital. They lost many friends that day, but they also experienced the one of the most wonderful days of their lives,the birth of their first child. They call her their guardian angel.

Click on www.babyplus.com and watch the video, It is truly an interesting story.

Helen

Infant Sleeping Schedule

Prenatal sleep states remain undisturbed by BabyPlus stimulation.

Expectant mothers and fathers have asked how their baby will sleep once born.  We understand that the idea of baby stimulation could lead to that question.  BabyPlus babies have wonderful sleep patterns; plus, they have an increased ability to self-sooth.

The sound level to the baby is strictly controlled for both pitch and volume.  Dr. Brent Logan spent 25 years studying the normal environment of the developing baby, and BabyPlus is carefully designed to present sounds for the prenatal infant at a very safe but audible level. 

The baby hears the sounds of its mother's heartbeat at approximately 95 decibels, as loud as a rock band, constantly. Moreover, normal sounds in a mother's environment--television, radio, loud remarks, traffic--reach the fetus at volumes similar to that of her heartbeat yet the baby still sleeps through this noise most of the time, even though its brain is always monitoring these sounds. 

BabyPlus is designed to produce an external sound of about  90 to 95  decibels, which is then reduced by 30-35 decibels as it is filtered through the mother's abdominal wall, reaching the unborn infant at  60-65 decibels, well below the sound level of the mother's blood.  BabyPlus therefore has a scientifically engineered sound ceiling which is always less that the natural sonic environment of the womb.  More than 150,000+ families worldwide have attested to its safety and effectiveness. 

Over stimulation does not occur because, like the maternal blood pulse, this sound is so familiar to the developing baby.  The tones are natural, and the sound level is appropriate. 

Remember - the womb is not a "soundproof booth."  Your baby is hearing everything all day long.  The purpose of prenatal stimulation is to use a sound your baby is very familiar with - the mother's heartbeat - during the critical period in prenatal development.