The womb box

On a cold February night, Sheila Savage and her husband, Ian, cuddle comfortably on the couch of their Red Hook garden apartment and place a small disc-shaped speaker on her seven-months-pregnant belly.

Grabbing a microphone, the couple take turns speaking to their fetus about their plans to decorate the nursery.

“It’s fun and exciting to think that by using this [high-tech device] that our baby can actually hear us,” says Savage, 34. “Obviously we know the baby can’t understand us, but it makes us feel like we’re getting a jump-start on the bonding process. Without a sound system, our words might be muffled.”

Zandy Mangold

At five months, expectant mom Maria Suarez pipes classical music into her uterus. She hopes her baby will soon be bouncing to Beyoncé in there.

The Savages are among a growing number of New York parents hoping to build a stronger auditory connection with their unborn babies. A new wave of “womb boxes” — devices that amplify noises in the uterus — has recently flooded the market, including the Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System ($129.99), which launched two months ago. The Ritmo, a Velcro belt with speakers for an MP3 player, attaches to a mother’s waist and allows her to shop, clean, even dance while her kid listens to the latest Top 40.

Five-months-pregnant Maria Suarez, 32, of Roosevelt Island, pipes in classical tunes to her fetus using “Belly Buds” ($60), which has suction cups for speakers that connect straight to her iPod.

By the time her baby boy is born, Suarez expects him to have a broad musical appreciation.

“Hopefully by seven months he’ll be listening to Beyoncé,” she says.

But doctors are now warning against the potential hazards of a mother turning her womb into a boom-boom room. “This could be a hindrance to a baby’s sleep cycle,” says Dr. David Cabbad, a pediatrician at the Brooklyn Hospital Center.

“Why don’t we just let the baby develop normally in utero? Let him hear the father screaming at the mother, the TV, the phone ringing, and then when he gets out let him deal with that. It’s not natural. They’re in a womb, a protected atmosphere. Now you’re going to give them outside interference? Why don’t we give them a cellphone, too?”

The trend for blasting sounds to the womb began in 1991, when French ear, nose and throat specialist Dr. Alfred Tomatis released his book “Pourquoi Mozart?” claiming that fetal exposure to rhythmic noises could increase a child’s intelligence — and possibly treat developmental disabilities including autism.

Since then, thousands of New York parents have pushed their personal musical tastes — including jazz, classical, rock, even reggae — onto their unborn babies.