BabyPlus Introduces Prenatal Curriculum

For the past three weeks I have been wearing what my husband and I have affectionately come to call the “Baby Bongo.” A little speaker nestled in a fanny pack is strapped to my belly at least an hour a day. During that hour, Little Bird listens to one of 16 lessons in the only prenatal education curriculum backed by over 25 years of scientific testing.

The only sound a fetus consistently hears in the womb is his mother’s heartbeat. Based on this, BabyPlus theorizes that their “prenatal curriculum introduces your developing baby to learning in the only true language of the prenatal environment, the language of the maternal heartbeat. The spoken word is too difficult for the developing child to understand and music is too complex.”

Using the BabyPlus prenatal education curriculum is easy. You simply look up how many days you use each of the 16 lessons based on what week of your pregnancy you start the program. Then, you wear the BabyPlus for one hour at a time, twice a day. It’s that simple.

The website touts such benefits in newborns and infants:

• More readily nurse
• Display an increased ability to self-soothe
• Are more interactive and responsive
• Are more relaxed & alert at birth

BabyPlus president, Lisa Jarrett, made time in her schedule to talk with me about the product. She told me about some of their studies and the research that is scheduled to be done next. She told me of her own children and what convinced her to begin using the BabyPlus during her first pregnancy.

As a musician and a teacher, I wondered why I should bother with the BabyPlus system when my baby is already hearing music for several hours per day. I disagree with their statement that “music is too complex,” and wish that there was an effort for a connection to be made, instead of attempting to separate the BabyPlus from playing music for your baby. After all, the 16 auditory lessons are just simple rhythmic patterns in varying time signatures.

However, after my conversation with Lisa, I came away with some convincing arguments.

1. The heartbeat is always there. Always. That is why it works as the first tool of communication. Even though it is my voice my baby is hearing singing, and my fingers playing the keys of the piano or the strings of the guitar, the sound that Little Bird hears always is my heartbeat. The music comes and goes.
2. BabyPlus doesn’t claim to make geniuses. It’s not about how much the child will know, but about how the child will learn. The 16 lessons help the developing baby discern between the mother’s heartbeat and the sound of the “baby bongo.” This discernment helps create connections within the brain even before birth. How a child learns is much more important than what a child knows.
3. It’s no coincidence that Einstein’s mother was a piano teacher.

Okay, so the last one didn’t have anything to do with convincing me to use the BabyPlus, but I was glad that she acknowledged it.

Does it work? All I can tell you is that they say it does. Little Bird is staying put awhile longer, so I don’t have any of my own evidence for you. What I can tell you is that I’m convinced enough to keep using the BabyPlus for the rest of my pregnancy. The benefits they claim are ones that I want for my child, and the product is safe and easy to use.

Check back with me sometime in February and I’ll let you know how Bird fared. Of course, his daddy is likely to take any credit when we find out that Bird is the best and smartest baby ever to be born. I would likely give BabyPlus some of that credit.

November is Prematurity Awareness Month and thanks to Babykick we are giving away a kickTrak. Find out more here.