Mommy brain: a deficit or an adaptation

By Michelle Flowers | July 2023

Last week I popped out to lunch and upon returning to my desk, I suddenly realised that I was 20 minutes late for a meeting that I had organised! I was quick to blame it on pregnancy brain: the brain fog and memory loss that comes with forming a small, new human. I was met with much more grace from my fellow Perceptors than I had for myself: how am I going to balance my working life with impending motherhood? 

Then I did some research. Mommy brain, otherwise known as baby-brain or momnesia describes the dysfunction that pregnant and new mothers experience as a right of passage to becoming a mother. Dr Jodi Pawluski, a neuroscientist and therapist, has dedicated her career to “rebranding mommy brain”, which she does through research, therapy and a podcast. 

Mommy brain has permeated what it means to be, and become, a mother. It is a term that feeds into the narrative of undervalued women. It portrays a negative discourse of forgetfulness, fogginess and lowered productivity in women. However, Dr Pawluski’s research suggests that there are many positive changes that occur during pregnancy and the post-partum period.^[1] For example, there are complex neural mechanisms that allow for the fine-tuning of neural pathways which enable new mothers to effectively respond to their infant’s needs whilst simultaneously being able to regulate their own emotions and cope with new demands. In other words, mothers have a remarkable ability to manage a heavier load than what they had before. In addition, there are structural changes in the brain with regards to neural plasticity, specifically in the prefrontal regions and hippocampus – the parts of the brain responsible for your personality and memory. These changes result in enhanced caregiving sensitivity. Whilst short-term memory may be lost for a season, research suggests that pregnant and new mothers generally have better long-term memory than never-pregnant women.^[1]

The physical and outward changes are awe-inspiring, and yet the neurological adaptations go unseen. I agree with Dr Jodi Pawluski’s view of how terms such as mommy brain have tainted these changes to only focus on the negative, and I wonder what we, as a society have been attributing the positive changes to? Do we just expect new mothers to suddenly be excellent caregivers as part of their personality or driven by some external expectation? And what happens when mothers struggle with mental health and aren’t able to ‘mother’ as society expects? What if pregnant people were told that not only does their body know how to create a baby, but their brain knows how to care for it. Would this provide comfort as they learn to trust the process? Would it normalise their season of brain fog and memory loss, knowing that their brain is changing so that they can handle the many demands of motherhood?

As I prepare to become a mother for the first time, and in writing this, I am realising that I need to reframe mommy brain for myself – mommy brain: a transient state of adaptation; learning how to be truly present in a process of change; trusting that both my brain and my body know exactly what needs shedding and what needs creating.  

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^[1] ‘McCormack C, Callaghan BL, Pawluski JL. It’s Time to Rebrand “Mommy Brain”. JAMA Neurol. 2023;80(4):335–336. Doi:10.1001/Jamaneurol.2022.5180’.