Unborn babies ‘practise’ facial expressions in the womb

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue. Unborn babies 'practise' facial expressions in the womb Unborn babies 'practise' facial expressions of pain in the womb, according to a study published today. The researchers from Durham and Lancaster Universities suggest that fetuses' ability to show a "pain" facial expression is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors another index of the health of a fetus. The study extends the findings of previous work demonstrating that the facial expressions of healthy fetuses develop and become more complex during pregnancy resulting in fetuses being able to show recognisable facial expressions. The 4D scans of 15 healthy fetuses showed that they develop from making very simple one-dimensional expressions at 24 weeks, such as moving their lips in order to form a "smile", to complex multi-dimensional expressions which can be recognised as "pain" expressions, by the time the mother is 36 weeks into her pregnancy.