CatoCooper13
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2003
- Messages
- 6,441
- Reaction score
- 4
Recent advances in ultrasound scanning have shown that babies smile, cry and blink inside the womb, an obstetrician said.
Images captured using a 4D scanner suggest that unborn babies exhibit facial expressions as a reflex in preparation for birth, Professor Stuart Campbell said.
Prof Campbell, who has observed such expressions since he first started using the revolutionary scanner in 2001, said it was previously thought babies learned to smile after birth by copying their mothers.
Babies do not normally smile after birth until they are about six weeks old.
"This may indicate the baby's calm, trouble-free existence in the womb and the relatively traumatic first few weeks after birth, when the baby is reacting to a strange, new environment," he added.
The obstetrician, who pioneered the use of the scanner in the UK at the private Create Health clinic in London, said: "I don't think people realise the range of facial expressions you get inside the uterus, or indeed that babies blink.
"With 2D scanning you can see the eyeballs rolling, but now with 4D scanning it is quite clear that they are opening their eyelids, and that is in a very dark environment, so it must be a reflex.
"They make breathing movements inside the uterus, but there is no air, and they blink, but there is no light, so it seems they are making preparations for birth."
Smiling, however, cannot be interpreted as preparation for birth but may be a reflex, Prof Campbell said.
He added: "What's behind the smile, of course, I can't say, but the corners turn up and the cheeks bulge ... I think it must be some indication of contentment in a stress-free environment."
The 4D scanner, which produces detailed 3D images that move in real time, has shown that babies start making finger movements at 15 weeks, yawning at 18 weeks and smiling, blinking and crying at 26 weeks.
Prof Campbell said the machine, which is now used at a few private clinics in the UK, has also made it easier for doctors to detect abnormalities such as cleft palate and to diagnose heart defects.
It could also serve as an important research tool in helping to understand more about genetic problems such as Down's syndrome, he added.
A one-hour consultation with 4D ultrasound scanning at the Create Health clinic costs STG275 ($A668).
©AAP 2003
Images captured using a 4D scanner suggest that unborn babies exhibit facial expressions as a reflex in preparation for birth, Professor Stuart Campbell said.
Prof Campbell, who has observed such expressions since he first started using the revolutionary scanner in 2001, said it was previously thought babies learned to smile after birth by copying their mothers.
Babies do not normally smile after birth until they are about six weeks old.
"This may indicate the baby's calm, trouble-free existence in the womb and the relatively traumatic first few weeks after birth, when the baby is reacting to a strange, new environment," he added.
The obstetrician, who pioneered the use of the scanner in the UK at the private Create Health clinic in London, said: "I don't think people realise the range of facial expressions you get inside the uterus, or indeed that babies blink.
"With 2D scanning you can see the eyeballs rolling, but now with 4D scanning it is quite clear that they are opening their eyelids, and that is in a very dark environment, so it must be a reflex.
"They make breathing movements inside the uterus, but there is no air, and they blink, but there is no light, so it seems they are making preparations for birth."
Smiling, however, cannot be interpreted as preparation for birth but may be a reflex, Prof Campbell said.
He added: "What's behind the smile, of course, I can't say, but the corners turn up and the cheeks bulge ... I think it must be some indication of contentment in a stress-free environment."
The 4D scanner, which produces detailed 3D images that move in real time, has shown that babies start making finger movements at 15 weeks, yawning at 18 weeks and smiling, blinking and crying at 26 weeks.
Prof Campbell said the machine, which is now used at a few private clinics in the UK, has also made it easier for doctors to detect abnormalities such as cleft palate and to diagnose heart defects.
It could also serve as an important research tool in helping to understand more about genetic problems such as Down's syndrome, he added.
A one-hour consultation with 4D ultrasound scanning at the Create Health clinic costs STG275 ($A668).
©AAP 2003