The Maternal Voice: Source Of Emotional Support

The mother’s voice is the strongest bond with which our baby opens up to the world to feel loved and safe. Our every word creates new neuronal circuits in him.  We do not hesitate, therefore, to talk to him, to “caress” his mind with sentences full of affection.

It’s curious. Although in a sense the researchers had already guessed that the key to a child’s linguistic development is the mother (mostly because the “mother-child” relationship is, in general, more intimate than the “father-child” relationship), what they had not yet discovered is  the enormous amount of neuronal activity that the mother’s voice usually stimulates.

The study was carried out at Stanford University, in the United States, and was published not long ago in several specialized journals. According to this research, the mother’s voice is one of the most powerful stimuli capable of promoting a baby’s brain development .  

Read on, we explain everything in the following article!

The maternal voice and the social development of children

When raising a child, every stimulus is important. So important that it is almost unimaginable. It is obvious that the father’s voice is also essential.

As well as the voice of any other person who spends enough hours with the baby to be that daily “stimulus” from which to learn the way.

Vinod Menon is the psychiatrist and neurologist who directed the study. Based on her experience and the results obtained in this research, the emotional impact that the mother’s voice has on the baby’s brain is greater than that of any other individual’s voice.

It is an almost instinctive bond that matures from the moment the baby is in the womb. Let’s see it in detail.

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

The maternal womb is not a silent place. In fact, we know that the ability of this medium to transmit sounds is much higher than that of air.

• The fetus listens to every sound that is produced around it. And among these sounds, there is a voice that accompanies him every day, in every moment. It is the maternal voice. 
• The formation of the auricles begins already in the first weeks of gestation. Gradually they mature and develop on both sides of the face. But we know that already at this stage they are able to receive certain sounds.
• You will be surprised to know that the maternal uterus is capable of receiving sounds at an intensity between 50 and 60 decibels. It is like conversing normally with a person who is in front of us.

• The curious thing is that the type of sound that is best heard in the uterus is the one that has a higher frequency. Hence, any female voice will be more stimulating for the fetus.

The maternal voice helps us to grow

After nine months spent inside the womb, when the baby comes into the world, he perfectly recognizes the mother’s voice. It is by no means unknown to him.

Few things are as good at reducing a baby’s stress, crying and fear as the mother’s voice.  A voice that comforts him in a calm and loving tone.

That’s when that powerful hormone, oxytocin, is released. A fundamental substance to strengthen the mother-child bond and to calm the amount of cortisol in the blood.

• According to work done at Stanford University, the mother’s voice is capable of activating multiple neuronal circuits simultaneously. And this happens precisely because of that intense emotional union between mother and child.
• All this will cause the child to begin to better control their emotions, understand how the reward process works, recognize faces and gradually develop social and language skills.

If we have a regular and stimulating dialogue with our children from when they are in the womb, this will make them more competent in language development.

Well, not only language skills will benefit. An essential behavior such as speaking without shouting, always keeping the same tone of voice and listening respectfully, will help the child, when it comes to feeling empathy, to express their emotions and integrate into the world.

Nor can we forget that it is language itself that makes us human. This is why it is very important that we understand that before starting to speak, a child already understands many things. More than we imagine.

His eyes and ears, and first of all his brain, are very receptive to what is happening around him and about him.

The maternal voice is that caress that calms his fears in the evening, which makes him smile in the morning and which daily strengthens his self-esteem with that close, affectionate and respectful tone. So let’s use it, let’s talk to our baby every day!