As a developmental psychologist, I am very disappointed that this site is endorsing the BabyPlus product. I use this product in the Developmental course I teach to MA students as an example of how marketing can twist science and manipulate parents into buying something that is potentially harmful to the child (similar to what happened with the Baby Einstein phenomenon).

There is no reason at all for expectant mothers to use or buy this product–we do not yet know the effects of having infants exposed to unnatural sounds in the womb (unnatural in that the child would not ordinarily be exposed to heart-beat sounds from a machine strapped on the mother’s stomach). Babies hear plenty of natural sounds from inside the womb and from their environments outside of the womb (parents’ voices, etc.)

Infants receive adequate stimulation in the womb–there is no reason to give them this kind of extra input; it may increase their arousal level, which might be harmful to the developing infant’s sensory organs-we do not yet have enough information to be certain. See the example of the bobwhite quails for an example of how giving unnatural input prenatally can have adverse consequences (“Prenatally Elevated Physiological Arousal Interferes With Perceptual Learning in Bobwhite Quail (Colinus virginianus) Embryos” -it can be found on pubmed). Please visit the babyplus website and look at the research that ‘supports’ the use of this machine. Notice who the author is–yes, it is Logan himself.

Please–be very mindful of the information given to parents by this site.