Prenatal Stage Milestones

Social and emotional milestones are not able to be seen here as the fetus is still inside the womb. Although, they are still being developed for future use at this stage. At 16 to 20 weeks the fetus starts to hear and even reacts to sounds and can recognize their parents' voices. During weeks 24 to 28 the brain is growing and can know what state the northers emotions are in. In the last trimester they can develop routines and know who they attach to after being born. Importantly, psychological distress during the perinatal period has been associated with both mother-infant bonding problems, and poorer offspring social-emotional development (Lee Bas et al. 2020, 2021, 2022: O'Dea et al. 2023; Rogers et al. 2020, 2023).