Think pregnancy makes you absent-minded? Not so, says a new study
February 11, 12:00 AM
by Michele & Lexie, Seattle Eastside Parenting Examiners
You know how pregnant women use their condition as an excuse when they forget something or do something silly, like putting ice cream in the pantry and their car keys in the freezer? New research shows that this excuse is just a myth - pregnancy doesn’t make the mind fuzzy, in fact, it might even improve your brain!
An eight year study conducted in Australia showed that pregnancy and motherhood did not diminish cognitive capactiy. The Telegraph UK quotes lead researcher Helen Christensen as saying “Our research suggests that although women - and their partners - think there may be a link between brain capacity and pregnancy and motherhood, there are certainly no permanent ones that we can find.” The study was conducted by interviewing 2500 young people aged 20 to 24 years. These interviews were conducted in 1999, 2003, and 2007.
Additionally, research at a university in Singapore showed that rats actually developed more brain capacity when pregnant. Of this, Christensen said, “The rat data suggests that mother rats navigate mazes more efficiently, have less anxiety and fear and excel at multi-skilling. That sounds to me like almost every mother I know and I hope that the human effects eventually mirror those findings. One might assume that women were more likely to have better, not worse, mental ability during pregnancy compared to before, and that the results could be permanent.”
I’m not sure I appreciate being likened to a rat but the findings are certainly interesting. A study in 2002 stated that pregnant women’s brains decreased in size by four percent, which is at odds with these new findings. Given my experience with two pregnancies, I’m going to have to say that I don’t think the latest study is accurate. How else to explain the fact that I was constantly misplacing everyday items and forgetting everything, two characteristics that I never had before? It’s true I multi-task much better nowadays, which is simply adapting to the challenges of having to care for two youngsters, but that’s about all I can identify with in this study.
Certainly wouldn’t want to get dumber with every baby I have :wub: