Around which gestational month is fetal hearing developed enough to hear outside the uterus?

• A. 3rd month
• B. 4th month
• C. 5th month
• D. 6th month

Answer: (C)

Hearing in the fetus comes online as the auditory system matures. By about the fifth month of gestation (roughly 20 weeks), the inner ear structures and the neural pathways needed to process sound are sufficiently developed to detect sounds from outside the uterus, even though those sounds are muffled by amniotic fluid and maternal tissues. After this point, the fetus may respond to voices and environmental noises, indicating that hearing has begun. Earlier in pregnancy, at around 3 to 4 months, the auditory system isn’t yet mature enough to perceive external sounds, while by the late second trimester it becomes progressively more refined. So the timing when external sounds first become audible to the fetus is around the fifth month.