Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Babies Learn To Cry Before Birth

This article on the WebMD Medical News site today (HT: WorldNetDaily) reveals that babies apparently can do more in the womb than was believed.

Some researchers were studying the effects of cigarette smoking and/or cocaine on babies at about 28 weeks gestation, and they noticed that in all three groups (smokers, users of both cocaine and tobacco, and the control group who used neither) there was evidence that the babies cried.

Video-recorded ultrasound images of third trimester fetuses show that they appeared startled in response to a low-decibel noise played on the mother's abdomen and display crying behavior, such as opening their mouths, depressing their tongues, and taking several irregular breaths before exhaling and settling back down again.

[The researchers] say documenting crying behavior in third-trimester fetuses may have developmental implications because crying is a complex behavior that requires coordination of various motor systems. It also requires reception of a stimulus, recognizing it as negative, and incorporating an appropriate response.

It's hard for me to understand how abortion proponents can keep pretending that this is just a "blob of tissue" at all stages of development. The baby doesn't magically develop nervous system response capability at the moment of birth. Instead, there's a steady progression, and birth simply reveals how far the development has progressed.

Premature babies cry. They sleep. They wake up. They feel a lot of pain. And these things wouldn't be possible if the baby weren't already doing them before birth.

Why are researchers always so surprised?

No comments: