Babypod is a wireless speaker designed to be worn by pregnant women in their vaginas so as to bombard their foetuses with music with minimal distortion.
The Spanish company that makes the Babypod cites a single, preliminary study that shows a minuscule improvement in the rate of fertilization of egg cells during IVF when the sperm around them is vibrated into a more even distribution by music.
The study only examined fertilization rates in the first 48 hours after the introduction of sperm, and its authors say that their conclusions need to be studied out to the fifth day to see whether the effect persists. The study is silent on the question of musical exposure during foetal development.
But who cares? Let’s get those foetuses boogie-ing! After all, if you can’t put a speaker in your vagina, where can you put it?
How do babies hear outside sounds?The baby perceives extremely muffled sounds, why?
The uterus is a place protected from the exterior, and it is the mother’s body that carries out this protecting role through multiple layers of soft tissue. These attenuate the intensity of sound and distort it in its journey to the uterus; it’s similar to what happens when you hear a conversation in the next-door room without catching everything that is said.
If the sound is generated at the level of the mother’s abdomen –using headphones for example- part of the sound is scattered in the environment, and part is absorbed by the layers of soft tissue –the abdominal wall and uterus- so the baby will hear just a murmur, similar to what happens when placing a pillow over a loudspeaker; it is also similar to the background sounds in a forest.
Can babies perceive sounds like we do?
This is solely possible via the vagina.The vagina is a closed space, so sound is not dispersed in the environment. In addition, there are less soft tissue layers separating the baby from the sound target, only the vaginal and uterine walls. By placing a speaker inside the vagina, we overcome the barrier formed by the abdominal wall and the baby can hear sounds with almost as much intensity and clarity as when emitted.
(via JWZ)