Prenatal Enrichment System. BS?

Factual Questions
1

So I’m in charge of getting a gift for a mother-to-be. She is in want of the BabyPlus Prenatal Enrichment System.

As a Skeptic, I find this a little hard to swallow. “Scientifically designed rhythmic sounds”? Come on. However, she really wants one, so I suggested the Embryonics Wombsong Prenatal Sound System, which at least plays Mozart and any other music of your choice, instead of just sound rhythms, and which the mother can listen along to. Plus, it’s significantly cheaper (50$ versus 150$) so I don’t feel as ripped off by the “scientists.”

So, can any doctor vouch for the validity of such devices and does anyone have any experience or advice with regard to them?

2

Here is the most analytically cogent and relatively balanced discussion of the issue I found (with cite references as well). Most of the other sites were new-agey fluff or trying to sell something. The upshot according to the article is that babies do respond to inter-utero sounds/music but whether it’s simply a stimulus “startle” type response that they get used to over time or they are grooving on the tune and getting something positive out of it developmentally is another matter entirely.

http://pionet.net/~hub7/womb.html

"Lessons of the Music Womb

N. M. Weinberger
MUSICA - U of C Irvine, CA
Winter 1999

Lessons of the Music Womb

Young children and even infants are known to have surprisingly complex abilities to perceive and respond to basic components of music. This musical competency, evident long before the development of speech or the ability to play a musical instrument, raises the question of the earliest age at which the nervous system and brain can adequately process, learn and remember music. Increasing evidence suggests that the answer is “well before birth”. In short, the womb appears to be the first concert hall."

etc etc etc

3

The question actually should be: and the point is?

Mozart seemed to do pretty well, and he didn’t have this system.

While I can’t point to a link, please note that all you’ve got is their word that this works. There’s no proof.

Personally, I’d rather see $50 worth of diapers, but that’s just me.