The Mother’s Voice, Source Of Emotional Support

The mother’s voice is the most powerful bond with which our baby will open up to the world to feel loved and safe. With each word we create new neural circuits, so do not hesitate to speak to them, to “caress” their mind with phrases full of affection.

It is curious, because although in a certain way scientists already intuited that the role of the mother was key to the development of a child’s language (mainly because the “mother-baby” interaction is, in general, more intimate than with the father), what was not known was the large number of neural structures that the mother’s voice usually stimulates.

This study was carried out at Stanford University, United States, and has been published very recently in various specialized journals. According to this work, the voice of mothers is one of the most powerful stimuli to promote the brain development of a child. 

We explain it to you in the following article.

The maternal voice and the social development of children

When raising a child, each stimulus counts and has an importance that sometimes we don’t even imagine. It is clear that the voice of the father is also essential, as is that of any other person who spends enough hours with a baby to be “that stimulus” daily from which to learn and understand the world.

Vinod Menon is the psychiatrist and neurologist who led this study, and based on his experience and the results seen in this work, the emotional impact that the mother’s voice has on a child’s brain is greater than that of anyone else. It is an almost instinctive bond developed from pregnancy.

Let’s see it in detail.

Life in the womb, a whole world of sounds to discover

The mother’s womb is not a silent place. In fact, it is known that the ability of this medium to transmit sounds is much more intense than air.

• Fetuses listen to every sound that happens around them, and there is a voice that accompanies it every day and every moment: the mother’s voice.

• The formation of the auditory pinna begins already in the first weeks. Little by little they will mature until they are on both sides of the face, but it is known that they are already receptive to certain sounds.

• You will be surprised to know that the maternal uterus is capable of receiving sounds at an intensity of between 50 and 60 decibels. It is like being face to face with a person having a normal conversation.

• The funny thing is that the type of sound that is best heard in the womb is the one with a higher frequency. So any female voice is going to be more stimulating to the fetus.

Mom’s voice helps us grow

After nine months inside mother, when the baby arrives in the world, he perfectly recognizes his mother’s voice: she is not unknown to him.

Few things are more suitable for reducing a baby’s stress, crying or fear than a mother’s voice comforting him in a calm and affectionate tone. It is then that this powerful hormone, oxytocin, is released, a key element in strengthening the mother-child bond and reducing cortisol in the blood.

• According to the work carried out at Stanford University, the maternal voice is capable of activating multiple neural circuits at the same time, and this is so because there is precisely that intense emotional union created between the two.

• All this will make the baby begin to better control his emotions, to understand how the reward process works, to recognize faces and to gradually develop his social and linguistic skills.

If we establish regular, respectful and stimulating communication with our children already from the womb, all this will make them more competent in language development.

However, it is not only your language skills that will benefit . Something as essential as speaking without yelling, always maintaining the same tone of voice, being receptive and respectful at the same time , will make that child much more adept at empathizing. , to vent their emotions and to integrate into the world.

Nor can we forget that it is precisely language that makes us human. Therefore, it is vital that we understand that before a child begins to speak, he understands much more than we think. Their looks and their ears and above all their brain, are tremendously receptive to everything that surrounds them.

The mother’s voice is that caress that relieves her fears at night, that brings her smiles in the morning and that strengthens her self-esteem day by day with that close, affectionate and respectful tone. Let’s make use of it, talk to your baby every day.