Pregnancy brain: myth or reality?

Alyson Hannigan of 'How I Met Your Mother' recently noted that being pregnant makes her feel like a stoned Koala bear. "I get tired a lot and I have pregnancy brain, which I never realized was a thing but it is," the expectant mom said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Friday.

Contrary to popular belief, however, a new study reveals that having babies actually SHARPENS women's brains. A 10-year study into the phenomenon by scientists at the Australian National University in Canberra concludes that "baby brain" is an urban myth. Instead of suffering a slump in mental and verbal abilities during the early stages of motherhood, women's cognitive abilities improve when they become pregnant.

"We found that women who were pregnant during the second or third batch of interviews performed the same on tests of logic and memory as they did before, and there was no difference between the pregnant women and the controls," said Professor Helen Christensen, who is director of the centre for mental health research at the university in Canberra.

"It really leaves the question open as to why [pregnant] women - and, often, their partners - think they have poor memories, when the best evidence we have is that they don't," she said. "Perhaps women notice minor lapses in mental ability and then attribute it to being pregnant because that is the most significant thing in their mind at the time. Or sleep deprivation could mask the positive cognitive effects." Christensen believes the improvements in mothers' mental abilities could be permanent.

What do you think? Does pregnancy brain exist?

Sources: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/08/pregnancy-maternity-sharpen-womens-brains
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20256008,00.html

Pregnancy brain

Headline (3 March): Babies can cause 'momnesia'

Headline (today): Pregnancy makes women quicker, smarter

Interesting. The subject of 'pregnancy brain' annoys me to no end. I have no doubt that pregnant women change their priorities in preparation for motherhood; recent research has shown that fluctuations in hormones affect the ways in which pregnant women think as they change their focus from themselves to their babies. Hanging out the washing or remembering a friend's birthday can drop down on the list of priorities as thinking about birth starts to eclipse the things that would have once been important.

Nevertheless, 'pregnancy brain' only further pathologises pregnancy as a condition to managed. Similar to representations of women as chaotic and irrational during menstruation or menopause, the suggestion that women similarly 'lose it' as they become mothers more deeply entrenches negative cultural stereotypes about women and their reproductive bodies.

However, today new research supposedly suggests that pregnancy makes women 'smarter'. Whereas hormones are pregnant women's downfall in earlier reports, this latest report suggests a reservoir of hormones released during pregnancy enacts permanent brain change. Basically, alot of estrogen makes women better mothers; they become more visually aware and perhaps unsurprisingly, strengthens their survival instinct. However, here is the kicker. This new research is based on rats...

Okay, maybe I'm missing something here but pregnant women are not rats. Therefore, I find it pretty ridiculous that a legitimate research group could even conceive of making such a huge scientific leap. Not only are the brains of humans and rats significantly different, the scientists only use unnamed 'observational studies' as evidence to confirm the same reaction in new mothers. The authors of the study argue that if they can replicate this hormone reaction in 'older' women, perhaps they can 'treat' menopause (again, like it's a disease).

Sources: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23402325-5005961,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-03-03-momnesia_N.htm