I think most important is to talk to him. some books told parents to praise the baby. I think these are good ideas to develop baby's positive thinking.
My mother in law wanted me to look at pictures of pretty babies, listen to music, etc. but these are just things that makes a pregnant mother happy but does little to the baby. When we listen to music, we can hear it but the baby cannot.
Depending on how mand months you are pregnant, there are different things that you can do. Go read some books on this topic and there are even exercises that you can do with baby in the tummy.
I am using Babyplus, you can take a look la.... There are quite a few who are using it from BBK. You can ask them too Take a look at the other discussion in this column.
Listen to music, sing songs, read stories, stay healthy and happy. Peace in mind and rest more.
When listening to music, do not turn the volume too high or put the head phones close to the tummy as the amniotic fluid is a very good conductor, it will be too loud for the baby and might hurt the hearing system of the baby.
We need to understand our baby's environment before deciding what to do.
Inside our tummy, our baby's senses become functional as from around 20 weeks. He can hear our heartbeat, our blood stream, our intestines, our lungs and he/she is surrounded by water which is trapped inside our uterus with our skin and fat on the outside.
Taking all this into consideration, then decide on what we should or should not do. I don't think we can hear what's happening above water when we are swimming under water. This is a worthwhile experiment in the swimming pool.
However, reading and listening to music is good because it calms the mother and it benefits the baby in an indirect and not a direct way :wink:
I read that talking to baby also works at the later stage of pregancy but you need something to help you get the sound through..