The Dr. Seuss Conspiracy, Or Reading To Your Baby In Utero

We are expecting our first baby in November. One of the women I work with, who recently had a child herself, asked me if I had started reading to the baby yet.

“Out Loud?” I asked somewhat shocked and horrified. “Am I supposed to?”

According to Audrey Geisel, the wife of the late Dr. Seuss, who wrote the forward to this book the answer is a resounding yes. “Oh, Baby, the Places You’ll Go" is subtitled “A Book To Be Read In Utero” and is adapted from the works of Dr. Seuss by Tish Rabe.

Dr. Seuss apparently was quite intrigued by research into the development of babies still in utero. While reading up on this subject he came across a study that had future parents reading to their baby while still in the womb. To his great delight, the book that the study chose to read to the babies was “The Cat in the Hat.” The results of the study found that the vast majority of the participants experienced “increased uterine activity during the reading - and a gradual settling down afterward.”

Not wanting to be a bad mommy before my child was even born, I asked to borrow the book. Hubby was almost as fascinated by the idea as Dr. Seuss and convinced me to settle down on the couch for baby’s first reading experience. It was, I will admit, a little silly and embarrassing for the first few moments, but then believe it or not, baby started moving around - a lot.

Was he enjoying the book? How could he know the difference between our usual conversation with each other and hubby reading him a book? It seemed pretty strange and amazing. While baby may have enjoyed the book, we quickly became irritated with it.

Let me give you an example: “...whatever you do, things won’t always go right, You might meet the Grinch in the dark of the night, His heart is too small and his shoes are too tight. (He’s not very friendly and rarely polite.) You might run into trouble, as folks often do, when you are trying to travel to Solla Sollew...” Sounds fun, doesn’t it? It is until you realize that this little tiny book contains a reference to every single book that Dr. Seuss ever wrote. Mrs. Geisel tells us in her forward that “this response {the increased activity} to the book continued after delivery. The baby apparently recalled having heard the story before...in utero.”

I hate to sound like a crazed conspiracy theorist, but we couldn’t help but wonder if this wasn’t some sort of plan by the Estate of Dr. Seuss to get babies addicted to Dr. Seuss books before they were even born. Horrors. The message is nice, “...so now, as my voice burble-urps in your ear - with a bump-thumpy sound that is not very clear - the words I am saying you hear in your heart, and know that I wish you the very best start.”

A conspiracy for sure, but a nice one. Perhaps it’s designed to remind us future parents of how much we love Dr. Seuss, so that we’ll go out and buy more of his books. It’s too late for us already, we've been won over and have moved on to reading baby "The Cat in the Hat." I can hardly wait for "The Lorax" and "Horton Hears a Who."