--- title: Study: Pregnant Mother's Touch Elicits Greatest Response From Baby description: A new study shows fetuses respond to touch more than noise canonical: https://time.com/3930036/mothers-touch-pregnancy-belly/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-22T14:23:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:02:54.948Z article:section: Health og:title: Study: Pregnant Mother's Touch Elicits Greatest Response From Baby og:description: A new study shows fetuses respond to touch more than noise og:url: https://time.com/3930036/mothers-touch-pregnancy-belly/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45da421e5dafaaaf/69885590cd684866d50a0739/preggers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5019 og:image:height: 2823 og:image:alt: dajda303055 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study: Pregnant Mother's Touch Elicits Greatest Response From Baby twitter:description: A new study shows fetuses respond to touch more than noise twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45da421e5dafaaaf/69885590cd684866d50a0739/preggers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Babies in Womb Prefer a Mother's Touch to Her Voice, Study Finds > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 22, 2015 2:23 PM UTC  Pregnant Woman and baby's hand Pregnant Woman and baby's hand Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 22, 2015 2:23 PM UTC When it comes to mother-baby connections, new research suggests a mother’s touch during pregnancy elicits the greatest response. In a recent study [published in the journal _PLOS ONE_](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0129118), researchers looked at what behaviors resulted in the greatest response from fetuses: a mother’s voice, a mother’s touch or nothing. The researchers brought 23 healthy pregnant women who were between the 21st and 33rd week of gestation into a dark room, and had them try three different behaviors. In one, the mothers were instructed to read to their unborn child, either Little Three Pigs or Jack and the Beanstalk. In another, the mothers stroked and rubbed their abdomen. In a third, control situation, the mothers laid with their arms at their sides. While the women performed the behaviors, the researchers used sonography to track the response of their fetus. They found that when mothers rubbed their bellies, fetuses had more arm, head, and mouth movements than when the women did nothing or when they spoke to the baby. “Although it is speculative to suggest, it might well be that the increases in arm movements in response to maternal touch are also directed responses towards the source of the stimulation,” the authors write, suggesting that the movements are indeed responsive and intentional. The fetuses were also more likely to touch themselves in the 3rd trimester compared to the 2nd trimester. The researchers believe this may because the skin of the fetuses becomes increasingly more sensitive. The new study is a very small sample size, so definitive conclusions can’t be made. But the findings add to research that suggests that communicating with the unborn baby really does some good. ### See the Funniest and Weirdest Baby Photos  Shot for TIME, 2015 Evan Kafka for TIME  Shot for TIME, 2015 Photo-illustration by Evan Kafka for TIME  Shot for TIME, 2015 Photo-illustration by Evan Kafka for TIME  Shot for TIME, 2015 Photo-illustration by Evan Kafka for TIME  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Shot for Huggies, 2011 Evan Kafka  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Personal work, 2009 Photo-illustration by Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Personal work, 2011 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  Personal work, 2009 Evan Kafka—Getty Images  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3930036/mothers-touch-pregnancy-belly/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3930036/mothers-touch-pregnancy-belly/"},"headline":"Babies in Womb Prefer a Mother's Touch to Her Voice, Study Finds","datePublished":"2015-06-22T14:23:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:54.948Z","description":"A new study shows fetuses respond to touch more than noise","url":"https://time.com/3930036/mothers-touch-pregnancy-belly/","keywords":["Research","Pregnancy","Pregnant"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45da421e5dafaaaf/69885590cd684866d50a0739/preggers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt45da421e5dafaaaf/69885590cd684866d50a0739/preggers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"dajda303055","caption":"dajda303055","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3930036/mothers-touch-pregnancy-belly/","name":"Babies in Womb Prefer a Mother's Touch to Her Voice, Study Finds"}}]}] ```