Yawning before birth

We yawn when we feel tired and sleepy and everyone yawns. Interestingly, a research has showed yawning before birth as a factual thing. When grown to a certain number of weeks, the fetus yawns sometimes. However, the habit of yawning discontinue as it keeps growing.

The research was conducted with 15 healthy fetuses of grown to 24, 28, 32 and 36 weeks. Eight girls and seven boys were researched. The yawning in those fetuses could be distinguished clearly from the openings of jaw just like in us, born and grown. All the mouth openings were not yawns, however. Out of 103 mouth openings, 57 were counted as yawns. When they reached 36 weeks, there was no more yawning.

Like already mentioned, we yawn when we feel tired and sleepy. But that’s just what we have concluded ourselves. Researchers have already found out that yawning is not always related to demand of rest or sleep. But, they haven’t yet been capable of finding out the actual reason either. The same case is with the yawning of fetuses. It isn’t clear why they yawn but according to Nadja Reissland, a developmental psychologist at Durham University in England, the reason why we yawn is different from the reason why fetuses yawn.

She said “When you see a fetus yawning, it’s not because it’s tire. The yawning itself might have some kind of function in healthy development. Fetuses yawn, and then as they develop they stop yawning. There’s something special in yawning.” She didn’t mention if any of these are proved by researches howsoever.

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