Loud Music & Pregnancy: Is It Harmful?

Question
I am 27 weeks pregnant and I was at a party in which VERY loud music was played throughout the entire house. It was loud enough to irritate me and *almost* loud enough to hurt my ears is this harmful to my baby?

Answer
Dear Diana,

There have been some studies done on the effects of noise on the fetus. But the studies have all been based on long-term or chronic exposure to loud noises, such as living near an airport or working in a facility with alot of constant noise. Essentially, the conclusions have been that exposure to excessive noise during pregnancy may result in high-frequency hearing loss in newborns, and may be associated with prematurity and intrauterine growth retardation. However, on the basis of these study results, noise-induced health effects on fetuses and newborns were only found to merit further study as clinical and public health concerns.

Although studies have shown that babies do react to external noise with their activity in utero, a one-time exposure to loud music is doubtful to have any negative impact at all on your baby. You were probably much more uncomfortable than your baby was.

I hope this has helped you and answered your question. I wish you well.

Brenda