The Miraculous World of Your Unborn Baby : A Week-by-Week Guide to Your Pregnancy

Your baby is yet to be born . . . but she's listening, learning, and aware of the outside world!

Traditionally, the world of an as-yet-unborn baby was thought to be an isolated and silent one. It was assumed that, asleep and growing in its mother's womb, the developing baby was incapable of experiencing sight, sound, thought, or emotion. In fact, the truth is very different, as bestselling author Nikki Bradford reveals here. Drawing on the latest research by leading authorities in the field, the author explains how the unborn baby's awareness of the outside world develops rapidly from very early in pregnancy.

Did you know that unborn babies respond to sound, and duck away from strong light, as early as 16 weeks? That they have been observed shying away from--and even attacking--an amniocentesis needle at around the same time? That babies follow moving light sources with their hands by 20 weeks? Or that they recognize music and nursery rhymes from 33 weeks?

The Miraculous World of Your Unborn Baby not only offers you unique insights into your child's remarkable mental and physical developments in the womb, but also provides wide-ranging information on pregnancy and childbirth. This information is featured in comprehensive sections on:

• How babies grow, week-by-week: Stunning color photographs enable you to follow the physical development of your baby. Did you know that the first heartbeat can be detected at about five weeks, and that fingernails appear by ten weeks?
• Your pregnancy and birth: Just how does the body cope with it all? Advice and information are provided on every stage of pregnancy.
• What babies can do in the womb: The latest research findings about unborn babies' emotional awareness and learning abilities; the evidence of communication (and telepathy) between babies and mothers.
• What unborn babies know: What babies hear, sense, experience, dream--and remember--about being born and being in the womb. Looks at babies' emotional development, including reactions to your various moods.

Nikki Bradford has written The Miraculous World of Your Unborn Baby in consultation with leading experts in the field: San Diego-based Dr. David B. Chamberlain, President of the International Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health, and arguably the world authority on prenatal psychology; Professor Geoffrey Chamberlain, past President of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the United Kingdom; and Dr. Sammy Lee, an acclaimed London-based consultant embryologist.

Nikki Bradford has worked as a health editor and writer for several magazines, including Essentials and Good Housekeeping. Her books include The Well-Woman's Self-Help Directory, Pain Relief in Childbirth, and Men's Health Matters. She also contributed to the Good Housekeeping Complete Book of Parenting and acted as a consulting editor on the bestselling The Hamlyn Encyclopedia of Complementary Health.