Rather than turning a mother’s mind to mush, evidence points to an improvement in a woman’s brain during pregnancy and after birth.
It’s common for new mums to lament the fact they feel dazed and forgetful after having a baby. Known as “baby brain”, this is experienced by four out of five women, says Sydney-based neuroscientist Dr Sarah McKay.
She says the first meaty piece of research supporting this idea was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience in 2017. That study found that during a first pregnancy, a woman’s brain changes in structure, primarily in the networks involved with social cognition. “That particularly allows us to tune into the social cues of this new little human in our lives,” McKay says.
In explaining all of this in her new book, Baby Brain, McKay doesn’t want to invalidate the experience of those who feel their cognitive abilities take a dive during early motherhood. Instead, she wants to offer a different lens through which to view the issue. Rather than being a problem with a woman’s brain, she believes the problem lies in society’s expectations.
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