It is hard to believe, but the world has actually stopped like we could never have imagined, not even in the best Netflix series. In these uncertain weeks, many people must face another enemy, in addition to the damn Coronavirus: boredom.

From this humble platform that is my blog, which allows me to reach out to you regularly, I would

like to contribute to making these days of lockdown more bearable for my pregnant readers. For this reason, at Institut Marquès we have put together a playlist (list of songs on Spotify) with the songs that our babies like the most, according to the studies on the reaction of fetuses to music that we have been carrying out for years.

Taking advantage of the fact that more and more pregnant women are communicating with their unborn baby through the Babypod vaginal loudspeaker, I would like future mothers to be able to live with less anxiety these days at home, interacting more with their baby, and keeping calm as they notice how it moves and how it reacts to music. Remember that at Institut Marquès we discovered that babies can already hear when they are only 16 weeks old and measure 11 cm, but only if the sound comes directly from the vagina of their mother because they can barely hear the noise coming from outside.

We know that the tunes that most stimulate babies are classical music and traditional songs, which have been passed down from parents to children for generations. We have confirmed this by seeing how they wake up, move their mouths, stick out their tongues… It is very unusual for movements like these to occur spontaneously, since only 3-5% of fetuses do so without any stimulation.

This musical list consists then of a lot of classical and traditional music. Although pop-rock is the style that produces the least reaction in fetuses, some exceptions are included, such as the song Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen, or the instrumental Mna Na h’Eireann, performed by my dear friend Sharon Corr, member of the Irish quartet The Corrs. 

Wishing that this health nightmare ends as soon as possible and that we can return to the desired normality as soon as possible, I leave you here the list of the music that most stimulates your future babies and the reaction that causes them inside their mum’s belly.

CLASSICAL		Movement mouth – tongue	Tongue protrusion
MOZART	Serenata K525	91%	73%
BACH	Solo BWV1030	87%	47%
PROKOFIEV	Peter and the Wolf Op.67	88%	10%
STRAUSS	Radetzky March	80%	20%
BEETHOVEN	Symphony nr. 9 Ode to Joy	72%	27%
TRADITIONAL		Movement mouth – tongue	Tongue protrusion
SPAIN	Campana sobre campana	91%	30%
JAPAN	Traditional Kisuna	84%	46%
INDIA	Mantra	82%	9%
AFRICA	African Drums	78%	11%
MEXICO	Rancheras	55%	5%
POP – ROCK		Movement mouth – tongue	Tongue protrusion
QUEEN	Bohemian Rhapsody	90%	40%
VILLAGE PEOPLE	Y.M.C.A	90%	10%
ANTONIO OROZCO	Pedacitos de ti	90%	45%
SHARON CORR	Mna Na h’Eireann	87%	50%
SHAKIRA	Waka Waka	50%	8%