Fetuses respond to father's voice but prefer mother's voice after birth

Fetal and newborn responding to audio‐recordings of their father's versus mother's reading a story were examined. At home, fathers read a different story to the fetus each day for 7 days. Subsequently, in the laboratory, continuous fetal heart rate was recorded during a 9 min protocol, including three, 3 min periods: baseline no‐sound, voice (mother or father), postvoice no‐sound. Following a 20 min delay, the opposite voice was delivered. Newborn head‐turning was observed on 20 s trials: three no‐sound, three voice (mother or father), three opposite voice, three no‐sound trials with the same segment of each parent's recording. Fetuses showed a heart rate increase to both voices which was sustained over the voice period. Consistent with prior reports, newborns showed a preference for their mother's but not their father's voice. The characteristics of voice stimuli that capture fetal attention and elicit a response are yet to be identified. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 56: 1–11, 2014.