Chrissy Teigen Tweets About Babypod – What Is It?
Chrissy and John might want to stick to just him serenading her and their baby. (Photo: Getty Images)
The internet (specifically Chrissy Teigen’s Twitter) is obsessed with Babypod, the vaginal sound system that promises to give your fetus a concert without the muffled sounds of just putting headphones on your belly or blasting tunes from your stereo. But what we want to know is: does it work and is there any point in using it?
Based on research from Barcelona’s Instituto Marquès studying fetal response to stimuli, this Babypod was developed to play music for the fetus through an earbud device that is inserted like a tampon. The study found that “babies are stimulated and respond [to hearing music] by moving their mouths and tongues.”
Do you need a Babypod? The makers explain that while the baby can hear noises in the uterus starting at 16 weeks, like their mother’s heartbeat, voice and muffled sounds from the outside world, but those outside sounds are only the volume of a whisper. To fully stimulate the baby with voices beyond your own, they created this thing…and made it pink. Even model Chrissy Teigen – expecting with musician husband John Legend – is dubious. The feturs, after all, is located in the uterus.
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Dr. Jennifer Ashton, MD, Board-certified OB-Gyn and ABC News Chief Women’s Health Correspondent, tells us the basic concept here is actually not a bad idea. “I always recommend that expectant parents play music for their unborn babies because we know that fetuses can hear in utero, and music has been shown to utilize pathways in the brain that can work positively in the future, so there is little risk and potentially some benefit.”
(Photo: Babypod)
Ashton is dubious, however, about your need for a vaginal sound system when you get right down to the science of it.
“The top of the vagina is the cervix, which is the lower part of the uterus,” she explains. “Sound waves are transmitted through body tissue, but there is no evidence or data that I have ever seen to suggest that placing a device in the vagina is any better or worse than just hearing music in the room. When the BabyPod device was tested, researchers saw the fetuses opening and closing their mouths on sonogram. Whether this is a positive or negative reaction we have no idea and no way to tell.”
Good point: was the action because the music the fetus was hearing was too loud? Did they like or not like the music? Would they prefer to hear their mother singing to the music? We have no idea and no way to know.
Related: Meet the Woman Who Carried a Fetus for 60 Years
The final, and perhaps most important question when you are considering inserting any foreign object into yourself is: is it safe? Dr. Ashton says, “We don’t know about any short-term or long-term risks to the mom or the baby because this type of device is so new.”
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