Prenatal Development - Parncutt

This chapter struck a sensitive nerve with me. I have read countless books for expectant mothers but found Parncutt’s information regarding the various biochemicals that pass from mother to unborn child, often due to stress and tension, invaluable. Nowhere in any of the ‘What to expect when you’re expecting’- Heidi Murkoff or the ‘The Girlfriend Guide to Pregnancy’-Vicki Iovine does it inform an expectant mother of these life altering facts.

Parncutt, similarly to Trehub, provides an indepth view of the sound environment of an unborn child that includes, the mother’s voice, heartbeat, breathing, digestion, outside voices, and external environment including music. High frequencies are muffled while some lower frequencies are inaudible. The most obvious organs to develop in a fetus that essentially aid in musicality are the brain and hearing/balance organs. Experiments to determine fetal hearing include heart rate acceleration/decelerations in response to sound from 20 weeks. Similarly, fetal communication between mother and fetus are tracked by behavioral states through representative biochemicals. Examples of these are endorphines associated with pain, stress, hunger, digestion and high cortisol levels, associated with anger. These all move from the mother through the umbilical chord and placenta to the fetal brain. The effects of a stressed or anxious mother often leads to premature or underweight new borns.

Parncutt address an interesting question of the purpose of prenatal hearing. This ability is limited to a small amount of mammals and has been hypothesized as a preparation for perception, language, and bonding. Research in the field has produced many inconclusive and unreliable results. The divide in prenatal psychology includes scientific-conservative literature and romantic-progressive research and much research is still being suggested for the existence of talent, music perception, and consciousness in a fetus. The issue as to whether music education should be present before birth is equally divided. There is no research that firmly establishes benefits to prenatal development and several aspects of the concept can have negative repercussions e.g. hearing damage and stress on the fetus.

Parncutt’s writing are constantly substantiated and referenced by previous research. Again, I am reminded of Pinker’s statement that ‘as far as biological cause and effect are concerned, music is useless’ and have to wonder whether Pinker ever read Parncutt.