The idea that becoming a mother reduces your mental abilities is such a tedious notion. The notion, as defined here in a previous post, is ‘baby brain’ - “.. it makes pregnant women and new mothers struggle with complicated tasks”.
I know some may find a certain solace in laying claim to experiencing ‘baby brain’; perhaps it offers some protection or support. “Hey go easy on me, give me a hand even, I’m experiencing torturous levels of sleep deprivation in combination with a complete upheaval in everything I’ve ever known about me and my life, it’s a real phenomenon you know, I’m not asking for special treatment, I have ‘baby brain’”. But like the notion that all women commonly experience PMT, I’m cautious of its Faustian outcomes.
Whenever consideration is given to the impact of hormones on women’s behaviours and cognitive skills there is a tendency to reduce women to irrational ninnies. This tendency will have people saying absurd things like “new mothers struggle with complicated tasks”. When the complicated tasks you’re actually regularly performing as a new mother aren’t recognised and you’re told enough that you’re not capable of anything recognisably complicated you undoutedly start to believe it. At a time when you need every bit of confidence that you can lay your hands on, you’re seriously undermined. Whatever help you’re offered on account of your unfortunate ‘baby brain’ is likely to come with a hefty dose of condescension. This is why I’m not unhappy to see a study finding the ‘baby brain’ notion to be a myth.
The project followed 2,500 women aged between 20 and 24, for eight years.
More than 200 of them became mothers in that time.
Research leader Professor Helen Christensen says women’s perceptions of the brain function is not reflected in the tests.
“I think emotional factors are likely to influence self report, what people think, but in the actual reality of the objective test performance, that perception is in this case misguided,” she said.”We found no effects of pregnancy on cognitive capacity and motherhood also had no detrimental effects,” she said.
Given that most of the mothers in my circle of aquaintance are very clever, I tend to put any vagueness or memory problems that occur at the same time as pregnancy or motherhood down to the fact that most of them don’t get anywhere near enough sleep, don’t get any time by themselves with their own thoughts, and have too many things to do and organise and remember at any one time. That isn’t a hormonal disorder.
Many of them have managed to finish PhDs, and/or hold down jobs, and none of them have done their children any damage.
Do I lock myself out of the house every now and then? Yes. Do I get irritable from time to time? Yes. Does it really need to be studied from the perspective of What’s Wrong With Half the Population? No. It’s nice to see some research testing what women are actually capable of, and how their self reports can be unreliable when their confidence is undermined.
Gee, seeing as I have amassed my (multiple) undergrad and postgrad quals since becoming a mother, I would hate to see what I could have achieved if I hadn’t had kids…
Seriously, I strongly believe that becoming a mother has helped me multitask, hone my focus and realise what I really want to achieve in life. All things that have made me smarter academically and otherwise.
Um, PMT?
I have always assumed that “baby brain” was nothing more or less than sleep deprivation, compounded for first-time parents by the overwhelming amount of new skills they have to acquire, very rapidly. In that sense, new motherhood affected me a lot like medical training, which also rendered me irritable, forgetful and less likely to tidy up the house. No one ever suggested that internship made me “less able to complete complex tasks”, however.
Damn, so I have to blame it all on all those drugs I took in my twenties? Ho ho.
I think sleep deprivation has a lot to answer for. Having said that, I have no trouble picturing the entire structure of a novel I’m writing or editing or wrestling with critical theory. What I struggle with is leaving the house with water bottles and nappies and little bit sized snacks in tupperware containers AND both my children. (’You’re sure? There are two of you? Oh well, better turn back.’) It’s the menial that defeats me, not the complex.
I think it might depend a lot on exactly what you measure. I think I mentioned before a study I read about that found that during pregnancy and for a short while afterwards, women’s brains actually shrink – the authors speculated that the demand for blood and fluid in other places taxes the brain. The effect is totally reversed within 12 or 18 months of delivery.
My personal experience is pretty consistent with each child. A distinct decline in memory function, with no change in my ability to tackle complicated tasks, or pretty much any other cognitive ability. It starts during pregnancy, before the sleep deprivation, and seems to slowly restore itself over about 2 years. I pretty much felt like it had got back to normal just as I fell pregnant again with each kid.
I think enough people report some sort of memory issues for it to be worth working out exactly what’s going on, and therefore what the best strategies are for dealing with it until it goes away. I also think the research needs to look for and account for differences between experiences, not just look for some ubiquitous phenomenon. And I completely reject the notion that “pregnant women and new mothers struggle with complicated tasks”. I agree with Penni, it is not the complicated stuff that causes grief.
I also read a study which suggested that mother’s cognitive function improves with motherhood because the mental gymnastics that is involved in meeting the needs of a child or children. And as many women are having children later – it could be said that this keeps your mind doing mental pilates for longer than ever before…
I think your priorities change when you’re pregnant. I remember going to a conference for my job at 6 months pregnant. I had very little interest in any of the topics, because it just wasn’t relevant to my life at that time, plus it was very unconfortable to sit for too long. So I think life priorities and context are a more important determiner of what hoops our brains feel like jumping through…
I’m fine admitting to friends when the lack of sleep gets me forgetting things and unable to come up with the right words, etc. but I would absolutely hate to admit it to someone untrustworthy who’s going to make that “mommy brain” assumption…it’s a slippery slope from understanding the temporary pains of adjustment to new motherhood to not hiring/respecting/etc. someone because she has little kids….
Love how Penni put it, too–”It’s the menial that defeats me, not the complex.” Me, too.
I definitely share your concern. It seems so innocently said, “oh, I have mommy brain today.” (Or, “Sorry, I am PMSing.”) Until you hear people say things like, “I wouldn’t vote for a woman. They are irrational for 1/4 of the month.” There is nothing trivial about that.