Does A Fetus Feel Pain In The Womb?
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Expecting mothers are bombarded with so many instructions, advice, and remedies right from the moment their pregnancy becomes public knowledge. All this overwhelming attention may make one wonder exactly how vulnerable are a mother and her child during the course of the pregnancy? Going to an ultrasound, watching the baby move, or listening to its heartbeat might be exciting enough to momentarily forget about morning sickness and struggles with regular physical movement for the mother, but what about the baby? Does it not feel any kind of discomfort in the womb? Worse still – along with being able to move and touch, does the fetus feel pain? If it does, how must mothers avoid it? How far along in the pregnancy does this development take place?
There is not enough evidence to pinpoint at what stage in the pregnancy a fetus’s senses develop enough to feel pain. It takes several weeks for a fetus’s biological system to develop, and any point in the development could be painful. If a fetal heartbeat can be detected as early as in the 6th week, pain receptors surely cannot take longer. No? Well, medical research may have some theories for us.
Scientific Claims About Fetal Pain
In a 2005 multidisciplinary review posted in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers explained their findings from studying existing medical literature involving fetal pain. Under this study, the researchers looked into 360 medical journal articles, after which they concluded that pain is a subjective emotional experience that requires an individual to be conscious and recognize the pain. Therefore, though there is no proof to suggest the exact time around which a fetus starts experiencing pain, the onset of recognition is said to happen at a very specific time in a fetus’s development (1).
The first sense to develop in a fetus is touch. Between the 8th and 17th week, sensory receptors start appearing on the face, moving onto the palms and soles of the feet, and finally appearing in the abdominal area. However, the path between these receptors and the fetus’s brain is not yet formed and takes a little longer (1).
Typically, the nerves do not develop enough to carry information to the spinal cord, and subsequently to the cerebral cortex, until the 23rd week. It is the cerebral cortex that interprets the feeling of pain. Additionally, before any sensory information is relayed from the receptors to the brain, it has to pass through the thalamus. The connection between the thalamus and the cerebral cortex begins to form around the 23rd week. Therefore, researchers of the JAMA study conclude that a fetus could possibly start recognizing pain around the 23rd week and estimate it to be a slow and gradual development (1).
A more recent study was conducted by an Italian researcher that was published in 2020. This study analyzes 10 years’ worth of studies and research on fetal pain and arrives at a similar conclusion. The only difference is that it links the pain experience to stress hormones instead of sensory receptors. It states that in the second half of pregnancy, a fetus shows the production of stress hormones in response to any potential painful stimulus (2).
Based on these two studies that have evaluated scores of previous research, a fetus may likely start feeling pain around 23 weeks into the pregnancy.
Medical Advice For Expecting Mothers
In the last stages of pregnancy, fetuses do have well-developed sensory receptors. This means fetuses can hear, smell, taste, and feel shortly before they are born. Pain may form a small part of this development and, therefore, expecting parents intending to carry the pregnancy to term are advised to focus on the positive aspects of the senses. A mother’s physical behavior during this stage is vital as it interacts with the baby, who responds to its mother’s voice and movements. Therefore, talking to the baby and making gentle movements will make it aware and prepare it for postnatal life. A mother’s mental health is extremely important in this stage as it can physically affect the fetus. So, the parents do not need to worry about the fetal pain and continue interacting with the baby with care and gentleness.
In case the mother experiences a situation that could cause potential trauma to the baby, they must be taken to a medical professional, most probably their assigned doctor, immediately to monitor the health of the mother and baby.
Once the baby is born, there are certain steps that parents must take to ensure their baby feels safe. The world outside the womb is overwhelmingly new and foreign to the baby. They have just stepped out of the protective shelter of the womb and have not yet aligned themselves to the world outside of it. Medical experts recommend skin-to-skin time with either parent to subdue any possible effects of trauma within the womb and build neural pathways that can help the baby feel secure. There have been studies that show significant effects of parental touch on a baby’s love and stress hormones (oxytocin and cortisol, respectively). Therefore, this step is very important in building the early relationship between the parents and their baby.
In conclusion, a fetus’s health is admittedly important during the second half of pregnancy, but parents need not stress about fetal pain unless they have to undergo fetal surgery. Although there is a high possibility that a fetus may be able to experience some pain inside the womb, it is not a concern unless under extremely traumatic circumstances. Hence, expecting parents can relax and welcome the gifts and learnings of their pregnancy in blissful anticipation.
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