Three ways your brain literally changes during pregnancy.

Dr Sarah McKay is a neuroscientist and author of Baby Brain: The surprising neuroscience of how pregnancy and motherhood sculpt our brains and change our minds (for the better), out now with Hachette. 

Around 85 per cent of women become mothers.

And most would agree that pregnancy and parenthood profoundly change us physically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually. Neuroscientists now believe becoming a mother is a significant neurological transition too.

Once considered a mumsy, irrelevant niche, the past decade has seen the emergence of the field of maternal brain research driven mainly by scientists who are also mothers. Their research reveals fascinating and meaningful information about the upside of so-called ‘baby brain’.

During pregnancy women’s brains undergo remarkable reorganisation in neural networks devoted to social cognition, empathy and theory of mind – thinking about what other people are thinking, feeling and what they might need. 

The extreme hormonal changes of pregnancy trigger brain plasticity, propelling our brains into a state of heightened sensitivity to learn new skills and tune into social cues. Pregnancy, neuroscience has shown, prepares our minds for impending parenthood.

Here are seven findings from the field of maternal brain research that may change your mind about ‘baby brain’.

1. Pregnancy sculpts human brain structures to tune into infant social cues.

Human babies are born with a biological mandate to be loved and comforted. Crying is one of their most powerful communication tools. The other tool is their cute wee face. 

During pregnancy, hormones rewire the maternal brain so it more easily tunes into infant social cues.

Brain imaging also shows information flows more swiftly and easily between different brain regions, making mother’s brains more efficient, flexible and responsive. Early motherhood can be thought of as a neurologically sensitive period in which our brains become especially attuned to a baby's needs.

2. You should not expect to forget when you’re expecting.

Four out of five women report they’re more forgetful or experience ‘baby brain’ during pregnancy or early motherhood.

But there is a paradox.

Carefully designed cognition tests (e.g., memory and attention) seldom find evidence for cognitive deficits. And some research (rarely reported in the media!) finds evidence for memory enhancement during pregnancy.

One reason neuroscientists give for why objective tests don’t corroborate women’s subjective experiences is the persistence of cultural stereotypes and negative expectations. Mothers are taught to expect to forget, and any time they experience even a minor lapse in memory, they take that as confirmation of ‘baby brain’.

We’ve spent a lifetime absorbing messages that our reproductive capacity and hormones are incompatible with healthy brain function and emotional stability. And when we internalise these negative cultural stereotypes, they become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

3. Baby brain may be a symptom of overwhelm, not cognitive decline.

Another reason given for the baby brain paradox is the ‘mental load’ or ‘emotional labour’ of motherhood.

Motherhood is messy and overwhelming, and we have competing demands for our attention. Memory depends on attention — what information you take in or filter out. 

When you’re sitting quietly in a neuroscience lab taking memory tests, far fewer demands are placed on your brain than you’d typically experience day-to-day. And in the calm of the research lab, you ace the tests!

Another study found mothers who report low wellbeing judge their memory as worse even when they ace the cognitive tests. In other words, when mothers are sleep-deprived, depressed, anxious, overwhelmed or unsupported, they’re more likely to self-report ‘baby brain’.

Many neuroscientists consider ‘baby brain’ to be a social support problem, not a neurological one.

Listen to the Quicky's explanation of matrescene below. Article continues after podcast. 

4. Parenting changes the brains of fathers, non-birthing parents, and grandmothers.

Compared to mothers’ brains which dramatically rewire during pregnancy, fathers’ brains show very subtle changes when they become parents. 

Careful brain scan analysis shows fathers’ brains rewire, but the change is ‘dose-dependent’ — the biggest differences are observed in fathers who spend the most time with their children. And fathers who are very involved in parenting, also show big drops in testosterone levels.

Brain imaging studies find non-birthing parents (including foster and adoptive mothers) and grandmothers' brains change too! In all caregivers, empathy brain networks are activated when caring for babies in the same way they’d be activated in the birthing parent. 

And experience matters: spend more time loving and caring for the baby, the more your brain will be changed by it.

5. Once a mother, always a mother.

The maternal brain doesn’t ‘bounce back’ after pregnancy; instead, the structural changes are long-lasting. 

Brain scans of women’s brains in midlife (in their 40s and 50s) and old age (in their 70s and 80s) can detect whether that brain has experienced motherhood. 

And, rather surprisingly, the more children a woman has raised, the ‘younger-looking’ her brain (but the effect disappears if she has more than four children, presumably due to stress!).

Watch the Mamamia team discuss fertility facts below. Article continues after video. 

6. Mother Nature never intended us to parent alone.

Human mothers through the ages have always needed helpers. Mother helpers provide and protect, cook us meals, teach us how to care for newborns, care for other children, give emotional reassurance, and even get up at night to help soothe crying babies so we can get few extra hours of sleep.

Loneliness or lack of social support is the major risk factor for poor maternal mental health (and in turn, poor infant health). Belonging to a family or having a village ‘help’ raise your child isn’t just a nice platitude. It’s a biological necessity.

7. Neuroscience is rewriting the story of matrescence.

The journey a woman takes from pre-conception, through pregnancy and birth to the postnatal period and beyond is sometimes called matrescence. 

During matrescence, our bodies, brains and minds undergo the most dramatic transformation of our adult lives.

The stories of our human lives are always entwined with the stories of the people we live with, love, and surround ourselves with. So, it should not come as a surprise that motherhood transforms the same networks of the brain that tune into, love, and seek out other people.

Dr Sarah McKay is a neuroscientist and author of Baby Brain: The surprising neuroscience of how pregnancy and motherhood sculpt our brains and change our minds (for the better), out now with Hachette.

Images: Supplied. 

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