From day one of conception, start talking to your baby in the womb, loud and clear, as you would to your husband. Touch your stomach while doing so and speak to the child about everything that has happened during the day. Encourage your husband to share similarly, both in the morning and in the evening.

By doing this, you will help to not only open up the auditory pathways of your child, but also help the child to recognise your voice as that of the mother’s, and your husband’s voice as that of the father’s, from day one. The new baby will soon begin to recognise all the other people by their voices because you had introduced them to the child in the eighth and ninth months of your pregnancy.

It may sound amazing, even funny, but you will find your child to be unique in many ways as you have communicated with the child from the beginning. The more you communicate, the more you speak, and the clearer you speak, the more receptive your child will be to you and, thus, the bond between you, the parents, and your child will be that much stronger.

It has been my personal experience with Vedoci to whom we would always introduce our friends Paulomi, Raju and Mahendra during my wife Nina’s pregnancy every time they would visit us. I was amazed at the response that Vedoci gave when I introduced her to the same friends, minutes after she was born in the hospital. She made clear eye contact with each of the three as I mentioned their names, one after the other.

“I had been to the sonologist for my 20-week anomaly scan; being a doctor myself, knowing how crucial this scan is, I was praying for everything to be alright but in my anxiety I forgot to do the ‘say & do with the baby’. At the time of the sonogram the doctors were not able to visualise the stomach and the bladder because my baby had not swallowed any fluids; this caused us a little worry. The doctor asked us to do a repeat scan the next day. As I was restless through the night and was having disturbed sleep, I kept talking to the baby about the scan aloud, asking him to drink more fluid and hold his urine until after the scan the next day. The next morning the scan got completed in 2 minutes and everything was found okay. After the scan was done, I thanked him.

This was my first marvellous experience of ISP and it has given me unshakable belief in it. I know there are many more to come; thank you for bringing it into our lives”.

Dr. Rasmi Manerasmi85@rediffmail.com

The following are a few standard ways of communicating with the child in your womb:

1. runningcommentary

This is a technique wherein you continuously speak to your child updating and informing the baby of everything that you observe and experience around yourself at that moment. For example, if you are travelling in your car, keep your hand on the womb and inform the child about the vehicle you are travelling in, the temperature in the car that you are experiencing, the route, the destination, the things that you are observing, the road, the trees, the hoardings, the vehicles etc. It is a simple act of giving facts to your child.

1. sayanddo

This is a technique wherein you speak to the child about your plans for the day, beforehand and in detail, including what you will be doing the next moment, as this is in itself preparation for yourself and the child who, when informed in advance, will cooperate and be calm and comfortable during that particular activity. For example, inform the child when you’re visiting your gynaecologist or sonographist, or when you’re going to attend your yoga class etc. The habit of ‘say & do’ will be very helpful in the later stages of your child’s life in preparing him for practically any situation.

“I would always tell my son Yatin, who was four months old then, that mamma is going to office now and will be back by 8.30 in the evening and you will be with your grandparents and they will take good care of you, as I had started working just then. He never gave me any trouble. This was in spite of never having been left alone even for an hour prior to this. He adjusted so beautifully. Now it’s very easy for me with the ‘say & do’ method to get him off the playground or swimming pool, which are his favourite places. This was very difficult for me prior to the ISP programme.”

Annapurna Bhavani Mudunuri, Software Engineer mbhavani83@gmail.com

The following testimony shows the instant effect of the ‘SAY & DO’ methodology.

“When my wife Sangeeta was pregnant, and her 7th month was on, we went for the routine sonography to the clinic. The doctor was trying to get the reading of the heartbeat of Shruti (we had already kept her name when she was conceived). But at that time, she (Shruti) was showing her back to us. The doctor tried to get her attention but she was not responding; then I tapped her thrice and said, ‘Shruti, please turn over as doctor uncle wants to hear your heartbeats’. Within two minutes Shruti turned 360 degrees and it felt like she too had tapped from the inside of the womb thrice.

Another thing we used to do was play a lot of music (vocal/instrumental), which developed a very good sense of rhythm in Shruti. She started to love music very much.

At her 6th month of pregnancy, we visited the doctor for sonography and the doctor told us that the baby’s weight was just 700 gram and that had to be increased, for which Sangeeta would have to be admitted to the hospital. That was the time when ISP worked like an angel for us. Kusum Purabia (our trainer), told us to practise ‘say & do’ & to keep a vision for the child and believe in it 100 percent. She assured us that everything would be okay if we would put our trust in the child completely. When we went for the checkup after 4 weeks, we again had to do the sonography; then the doctor was also surprised that our baby’s weight had increased to 2.5 kg.

Such was the power of communicating with the unborn child in the womb.

Anand Dabir, Asst. Manager, anand.dabir71@gmail.com

Note: Both ‘running commentary’ and ‘say & do’ should be practised using normal speech as if you are speaking to your child who is 10 years old (i.e., speaking to him or her as a friend). Don’t use baby talk like ‘chu-chu-muchu’; remember, what you give is what you get back.

When you apply the ‘say & do’ technique, you get amazing results; gradually, this becomes a habit for you with your child. The habit is that of telling him/her whatever you are going to do, in other words, preparing them for whatever is going to happen. Actually, this technique is effective not just with the child but with all the people you interact with, in your life.

Nurse your child in quietness and with love.