Unborn Child's Memory Develops by 30 Weeks in the Womb: New Research

LifeSite ^ | July 16, 2009 | Hilary White

[NYer]

July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - 30-week-old babies in the womb already have short-term memory capabilities, a new study from the Netherlands, published in the July/August 2009 issue of the journal Child Development, has found.

Researchers at Maastricht University Medical Centre and the University Medical Centre St. Radboud examined 93 healthy pregnant Dutch women and their unborn children, measuring changes in how the child responds to repeated stimulation. The children were tested at 30, 32, 34, and 36 weeks, and again at 38 weeks gestation. 

The study showed that the unborn children would initially respond to a "vibroacoustic" stimulus. The stimulus would then be repeated every 30 seconds until "habituation" occured, and the children no longer reacted, evidently accepting the sound as safe. Ultrasonography showed that in a second session ten minutes after the first, the children apparently "remembered" the stimulus and the number of stimuli needed for habituation grew much smaller.

The scientists found that at thirty weeks, the child in the womb has a short-term memory of about ten minutes. At 34 weeks, the child can store information and retrieve it up to four weeks later. The younger children who had been tested at 34 and 36 weeks were later able to habituate much faster than children at 38 weeks who had never been tested.
 
"This is the next step into a better insight in the development of the foetal central nervous system," said study co-author Dr. Jan G. Nijhuis, director of the Centre for Genetics, Reproduction and Child Health at Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. "We aim to develop an 'intra-uterine neurologic examination,' which could then be used in foetuses at risk."

[NYer]

This article reminds me of a news story that appeared recently, regarding a Polish abortionist who became pro-life after experiencing the same dream, repeatedly.

In describing his conversion, Adasevic “dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. ?My name is Thomas Aquinas,’ the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn’t recognize the name”

“Why don’t you ask me who these children are?” St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream.

“They are the ones you killed with your abortions,’ St. Thomas told him.

I challenge everyone to read his dramatic and very true experience.

Another 'champion of abortion' becomes defender of life

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[conservative cat]

That gave me goosebumps.

[Sax]

I swear I could “play” with my older boy in the womb. He liked to have his feet poked or pinched as he pushed them out on Mom’s belly. He’d dance them all around and do this for a while at a time.

My younger boy would have none of that. If you poked or pinched his foot, it would disappear and not return.

I could tell different traits even before they were “born.”

[NYer]

Ping!

[rom]

Yep, same here ... all of our kids reacted different to stimulus in the womb. It’s amazing to be able to play with your child before they are out in the world. In a lot of ways they are more responsive in the womb than they are the first month when they come out!

[PLD]

If only all abortionist would see what they are doing..and all liberal demons..One day they will all have to face God and then what..

[MizSterious]

This article should be required reading before any girl or woman makes a decision about abortion. Who can know this, or see the pictures of the child within, and still choose abortion?

[NYer]

I could tell different traits even before they were “born.”

Already in the womb, the child's unique character was unfolding. That is the beauty of God's design! We are each unique, like snowflakes. We bring our special gifts to share with other in this world.

[Cloverfarm]

When DD was born, she looked terrified. Then her dad laughed and said something and she got a priceless look on her face — she knew his voice.

[neocon1984]

This research will certainly make some of the more secularly minded “abortion moderates” rethink their views.

[cpforlife.org]

Facts are stubborn things...

A great on-line resource that further illustrates the personhood and actual childlike qualities of the unborn is titled Fetal Psychology: http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/tul/psychtoday9809.html

Click here to watch a 1-minute
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[cpforlife.org]

That's why ultrasound is so important in Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Those who have an ultrasound in that situation are about 80% less likely to abort.

That's why the libtarded pro-aborts hate all these advances and want to find “common ground” with those of us who call it by it's right name--murder.

[Notwithstanding]

EGGSELENT link!

[HighlyOpinionated]

A Baby’s Parents already know this. Mommy’s and Daddy’s voice is responded to in utero to the wonderment of the parents.

One of my friends has three sons. Every one of them while in utero would calm down and go to sleep when he talked to them. For two, they had decided on names and the boys seemed to respond to their names very early in life. The third wasn’t named until after he was born. But he knows his Daddy’s voice and was turning his head to see the direction it was coming from by the end of the first week home.

WHICH proves that ‘late term abortions’ are more murderous than Obama wants to know.

I BELIEVE IN CHOICE. I think the FETUS should choose whether to be born or whether to spontaneously abort (miscarriage). Let the Fetus decide, don’t make that decision for him/her.

[ex-snook]

I have an idea. Since Obama wants to provide health care for all, under maternity care, include the health of the unborn. Then instead of being killed, they will remember that Obama saved them.

[NYer]

she knew his voice ...

Yes!! They recognize the voices of their family and immediately respond. How can supposedly sane people destroy these precious lives.

[samtheman]

Peter Singer says they don’t have “preferences” so they have no right to life.

He says the same thing about infants.