It used to be thought that newborn babies were unable to perceive the pain to be born with a still immature neurological system, but this theory has been ruled out. On the other hand, there are theories that affirm that premature babies feel pain, that is why they try to reduce as much as possible the invasive interventions in their care, even the possibility of anesthetizing the fetus when an abortion is performed should be considered in case you could feel any pain.
We now know a new study on the subject, carried out by scientists from the University College of London, which states that there is a change in neuronal activity that leads them to think that the fetus feels pain from the 35th week of gestation.
The finding does not confirm that infants of less weeks cannot feel pain, but what it raises is that from that week (between 35 and 37) there is a neuronal activity in the brain that gradually changes from an immature state to A more advanced state. This change could indicate that neural circuits allow babies to process pain.
Premature infants under 35 weeks have similar responses to touch and pain, experts say, suggesting that starting at week 35 they are able to distinguish stimuli from the touch of painful stimuli.
To reach that conclusion the scientists observed the brain activity of 46 babies, of which 21 were born prematurely. Through electroencephalography, they measured the electrical activity of the baby's brain while undergoing a heel puncture.
In premature babies, a non-specific response was recorded, while after 35-37 weeks the response of the babies changed, showing localized activity in specific areas of the brain, indicating that at that time babies perceive the painful stimulus separately to the touch.
Anyway, confirm that the fetus feels pain from the 35th week of gestation and to suppose that he does not feel it before would be a wrong conclusion, since other investigations have confirmed that what was believed reflex reactions in the fetus of less weeks could be manifestations of true pain.
Even the author of the study clarifies,
"At first, very young brains react to stimuli by" bursts "of activity, but at a critical moment in the development of babies, their brains begin to respond with a specific reaction depending on the type of stimulation. Of course, Babies can't tell us how they feel, so we can't say that before this change in brain activity they don't feel pain. "
