If you have ever heard a woman who has just given birth talk about the changes in her body and life, or have experienced it yourself, you have probably heard or felt that after giving birth, memory often fails more frequently. Many women report that after childbirth, their memory is affected, suddenly forgetting all sorts of things.
This phenomenon is not something isolated, but has a name and has been investigated for several years now, and although the findings are inconclusive, there are indications of some extremely interesting processes in the brain after giving birth.
But what is the baby brain?
The baby brain is precisely that phenomenon described by mothers after childbirth, where they explain that their memory constantly fails, they become forgetful and have a hard time remembering everyday things like where they left their keys.
Does the baby brain exist?
There is currently no consensus among scientists, as it is still a relatively young area of research, but there is isolated evidence of changes in the brains of postpartum women. And while reports of memory loss are only noticeable to the women themselves and those close to them, there is no evidence that it affects their performance in day-to-day activities.
On the other hand, while there is no concise answer to the existence of the baby brain, there are other interesting processes that may affect the cognitive functions of mothers.
Baby brain, gray matter and lifestyle changes
The moment of childbirth is a before and after for many women, because having a baby in their care is an extremely drastic transformation to their life, and this, added to the physical and mental stress of childbirth, can cause a woman's mind after giving birth to be scattered and have trouble remembering everyday things that have nothing to do with her current priority: her baby.
Many researchers have opted for this explanation, that the memory loss is simply a result of the drastic changes, stress, anxiety and other emotional processes that one goes through during and after childbirth.
However, it is true that childbirth involves changes in the brain at a physiological level and not only psychological, as it happens that women lose gray matter during their pregnancy, especially near term. This loss of gray matter translates into a deliberate reduction of neuronal connections, and happens at times of life such as adolescence and yes, also in pregnancy.
It is believed that this loss of connections is deliberate, so that mothers can adapt to the new needs of their baby and the new mental processes it will have to have. In other words, the brain prunes its previous connections to make room for new networks to form with the baby as its priority, improving its mental capacity in the context of motherhood.
In either case, these symptoms are transient and do not cause future harm or cause concern for doctors, but are simply another process of change brought about by pregnancy.
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