Biology Fun Facts:

How Do Babies Recognize Their Mother?

Natchya Tiwari

Babies use three important senses that help in identifying their moms. They are sense of hearing, smell, and vision.

A baby knows his mother's voice before birth. It starts feeling it in around seven months gestation. New-born baby's sense of smell remains very developed. Baby relies on it more than less-developed other senses, such as vision.

A new-born baby can identify the scent of his mother's amniotic fluid three days after birth. The baby is immediately drawn to the scent of breast milk. If left on the mother's chest immediately after birth, the new-born will follow the scent of the milk and root around until it latches on to nurse.

This is the reason why pediatricians recommend mothers to wear t-shirt and putting it under baby's fitted crib sheet to help the baby to sleep at night. New-born can’t recognize his mother’s face exactly, because new-born can only see to a distance of about 12 inches. It takes time for the babies to remember their mothers’ face. New-born babies use their sense of smell more than other senses to recognize their mother, but a baby’s sense of touch is one of the earliest to emerge.