BABY BRAIN DEBUNKED

Louisa de Lange - 18 Dec 13

Last week, I forgot someone’s name.  They are quite key and important in my life, and needless to say they might be offended if they knew.  But it had gone, albeit temporarily, and for five minutes I scrabbled around fruitlessly in my mind.  I retold this story to my friend and she looked at me knowingly and nodded.  “Ah,” she said, “baby brain.”

No, stop. There is no such thing as baby brain.

Baby brain is not something we are afflicted with once we have children like some common illness that renders us dumb or incompetent.  Pregnancy does not irreparably damage our brains, equivalent to a car accident or hard drugs.

I find it bizarre we accept this myth as truth.  It is not the fifties, it is not cute to be stupid.  Once women have had babies we encounter a whole new range of misconceptions and discrimination: about career aspirations, child care, part time working, just to name a few.  Why do we perpetuate and reinforce one that our brains shrink during pregnancy?

There is little evidence found within scientific communities that suggests it even exists.  A study in 2010 in Australia compared 1,200 women and their ability to complete memory tests before and after pregnancy.  No significant differences were found.  Similar results were found previously in the UK testing memory and attention. The Doctor’s conclusion in that study?  “It’s time society questions the stereotype of cognitive decline in pregnancy.”

In fact, research carried out in 2008 at Richmond University, Virginia, found the opposite – that women’s mental and learning ability increases after pregnancy, supposedly to prepare the mother for the “complex demands of child rearing”.

Baby brain is gender specific.  Men don’t get baby brain. They shrug and say “I forgot” with an apologetic smile while the bin doesn’t get emptied or the milk turns to yogurt left in the sun all day.  They are just tired or busy or absent minded.  Only women can have babies, so only women can have baby brain.

When you say you have baby brain, you are effectively saying that by having children you are less of a competent person. You can’t remember simple instructions any more. You can’t follow through on one easy task.

No. Stop.

I am not saying that sometimes we don’t forget things. Dates and phone numbers now languish inaccessibly in the depths of our minds.  We go to the supermarket and don’t buy the one vital thing we went for.  We forget to call our friends, we misplace our car keys.

But it’s not because you had a baby and the hormones involved changed the make-up of your brain. Here is why:

You’re tired. You were probably up multiple times in the night looking after your children and you certainly started the day earlier than you would have liked.  Cognitive impairment does go hand in hand with lack of sleep but this is something that affects everyone, from highly trained Royal Marines to school children alike.

You have a million things to remember. From what day child number one needs their gym kit, to remembering to pay the nursery, to arranging a babysitter so that your husband and you can have some precious adult time.  At the same time you are probably planning what to have for dinner, debating when to invite your in laws for the weekend and worrying about whether child number two will be okay now at school now their best friend has moved away.  And at the end of the day, whatever energy you have left is probably spent making a costume for world book day/harvest festival/bring your favourite rock to school day.

Is it any surprise you forgot to post the birthday card?

You are amazing. You are doing a fantastic job of looking after your family, running your household as well as whatever paid work you choose to do. Is it any wonder you put the cereal in the freezer?  Give yourself a break.  You forgot, you got it wrong.  Who cares?

But it’s not because you had a baby.  It’s not because you’re female.

It’s not because you have baby brain.

Louisa de Lange

View profile for posts, events and more info