Interestingly, girls tend to develop the startle response before boys.4 Furthermore, fetal movements recorded at these ages had little predictive value for a baby’s motor development and behavior for the first two years of life. However, the more boy fetuses moved at 36 weeks, the more they moved as one-year-olds. Interestingly, the opposite effect was observed for girls.5
Furthermore, at 25 weeks, the fetus starts regularly using her thumb to grasp objects.6 At six months, doctors have also studied premature infants to learn more about the capabilities of their counterparts in the womb. At 24 weeks, a premature infant sneezes when a doctor tickles his nostrils.7