A pregnant woman from Idaho is going viral for exposing what happens to a fetus when the mother laughs.
Destinie Ross (@destiniesanchez51) posted a clip on TikTok which showed her baby bouncing up and down inside her womb.
The text overlay read: “Just in case you weren’t aware, this is what happens to your baby when you laugh… I learned this the hard way.”
“I was 11 weeks pregnant and definitely feeling very nervous about the ultrasound,” Ross told Newsweek. “I feel like not seeing your baby in a couple weeks can always be a little nerve-racking.”
During the appointment, her sonographer mentioned that the baby appeared to have hiccups—something Ross found amusing and began laughing.
“While it looks super violent in the video, babies actually love it when you laugh,” she explained. “It releases serotonin to them and makes them feel calm and comfortable, and yes, they do get jolted around a little bit they have so much padding and fluid in there that they are totally fine.”
Ross’s laughter, however, only made things funnier. “My first reaction to looking at the screen was actually to laugh even harder,” she said. “I had never seen that before and it was actually the funniest thing I’d ever seen. I did feel a little bad when I saw it until the sonographer told me that it was completely okay.”
The sonographer’s reaction eased any lingering worry. “[She] actually said ‘EARTHQUAKE’ and started to laugh when it happened, which made me feel so comfortable but also made me laugh harder.”
The clip, which has been viewed over 18 million times, drew curiosity from other users in the comments.
“Omg, does it hurt them?!” one user asked.
“This made me laugh then I realized the same thing was happening to my baby and then I laughed more HELP,” another wrote.
“Omg I had twins so does that mean they were just bouncing off each other?” a third joked.
Jenna Hopkins, a registered diagnostic medical sonographer (sonagram.com), told Newsweek that the movement laughter creates rocks the baby in the womb.
“We believe the baby can feel the vibrations when mom laughs,” she said. “It does seem here like the sonographer is shaking the probe to get the baby to move. We do this sometimes to get the baby into the perfect position for a picture, and usually the baby responds to the shakes similarly to if [the] mom is laughing.”
“I can’t believe the support I’ve had from this video,” Ross said. “I never expected it to go viral the way it did. People have been so positive in the comments and even sharing their own experiences, which has just been amazing. I’ve even gotten some support from some celebrities and big brands which is the craziest thing to me.”
