Babies eyes start developing around weeks 5 to 7 and by week 20 they are almost completely formed, but the eyelid is still fused closed so that the retina can fully develop. By week 26 some babies start blinking and by week 28 they can open their eyes fully. We Have an amazing video of baby with her eyes wide open in our gallery.
For how long are a baby’s eyes open in the womb?
Itโs still pretty rare for us to see baby with its eyes wide open for longer than a few seconds, but we do see them blinking quite often. From as early as 20 weeks we see babies pulling grumpy faces, when we roll mum onto her side; letโs face it no one likes being moved when their nice and snuggled in.
Can a baby hear sounds or show emotion?
Baby can hear sounds as early as 20 weeks and will be startled by loud noises at about 25 weeks. Very loud sounds can cause changes in your baby’s heart rate and movements. Babies show lots of emotion, they smile if they hear their mum, dad or siblings voice.
Babies recognizing your voice
Studies have shown that babies recognize these voices after birth. Some studies have shown that after birth baby will recognize and be comforted by music or a story read repeatedly to them while in the womb.
Babyโs sense of touch develops early in pregnancy, ultrasound has shown that tiny babies are comforted by sucking their thumbs and respond when hand, foot or cord touch their month or cheek by 33 weeks the rooting reflex start and on ultrasound we see babies wriggling around trying to get cord in to their mouths.
We can see on ultrasound that some babies are real little snuggle bums and like nothing better than to snuggle into the placenta or womb so every part of their body is cuddle while they are gently rocked to the rhyme of Mum’s breathing.
4 months – that sense of taste begins
From around 4 months baby sense of taste is developing and by swallowing the amniotic fluid they can taste a variety of the foods we eat. At 26 weeks baby can taste whether itโs sweet, bitter, or sour, and will show a preferences for certain tastes and will begin to show a preference for sweet flavours by swallowing more amniotic fluid when it is sweet, and less when it is bitter.
By the end of the first trimester, your baby will start producing urine. Amniotic fluid is swallowed, digested, filtered by the kidneys, and then urinated back into the uterus, and the process is repeated. We have a brilliant 4D video of baby weeing in the womb in our gallery.