Baby's heartbeat

“Bear with me” – says the midwife – “while I try to locate his heart”. “Isn’t this the sound of his heart?”, I ask. “No, this is your heart pulsing through the placenta”. 

My baby’s heart beats in a place that is far from where I call home, and its rhythm is interpreted in a language that is foreign to my ears. As I wait, my thoughts drift. Where will his heart find its belonging when it starts beating separately from mine? Will it be to this place, which remains unfamiliar to me even after all these years? Will he understand my language, my memories, my music, my people? Will I seem foreign to him as he grows, and he, in turn, to me?

“Here we are”, the midwife's voice brings me back to the present, accompanied by the sound of a distinctively different, much faster heartbeat [sound of recording]. “140 beats per minute; your baby is doing great”. As he wriggles in my bump in response to the touch of the stethoscope, my worries dissipate. Wherever we are, my baby’s heart beats. 

Recorded by Nuni Jorgensen.

Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration. 

For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration