A Woman’s Brain Changes During Pregnancy

The transformation that occurs in a woman’s body during pregnancy is easy to see. But not everyone is aware that a woman’s brain also undergoes major changes during this time.

What are we talking about? Learn more about how your brain changes during pregnancy in this article.

Weight gain. Nausea. Back pain. These annoying hormonal changes that you feel everywhere on the body. These may be the most well-known consequences of pregnancy for women, but they are not the only ones.

However, these changes are not all negative. In fact, they help you take care of your baby. The maternal instinct goes to work even before your baby is born.

How a woman’s brain changes during pregnancy

Basically, science has shown that the gray matter in a woman’s brain shrinks during pregnancy.

Gray matter is found throughout the brain, the brainstem and in the spinal cord is responsible for processing information. In fact, the amount of gray matter in our brains is generally associated with intelligence.

Surprisingly, the reduction is most noticeable in the areas of our brains that are responsible for empathy. Losing neurons in this area, just when we need to understand the sensations of the fetus growing in the womb, can seem contradictory.

In fact, researchers have found that this reduction in neuronal connections in the brain’s empathy center happens precisely because our brain becomes much more efficient in this task.

This means that losing gray material does not necessarily mean losing skills.

Another powerful effect pregnancy has on the brain has to do with how we perceive our surroundings. Pregnant women become far more able to feel when the danger is close.

This effect remains for up to two years after birth. There is clear neuroscientific explanation for the mother’s instinct that so often saves the day.

Side effects

As a woman’s brain sacrifices some rational thinking to strengthen its instincts, pregnancy impairs some abilities while increasing others.

Here are just a few examples of how a woman’s brain changes during pregnancy:

• Memory : Many expectant mothers become forgetful during pregnancy, even if they were not before. Changes in the gray matter of the brain may be the explanation for this.

• Stress : Pregnant women experience less stress, mainly due to oxytocin. This explains how new mothers can manage to go through the chaos and sleepless nights without suffering the same consequences as they normally would.
• Social Skills : Have you ever noticed that mothers sometimes seem to have the ability to read minds? This is largely due to the fact that a pregnant woman’s brain is preparing to interpret non-verbal cues. It makes sense: Babies cannot speak, so this skill becomes basic in the early years. It can certainly come in handy in other areas.
• Courage : Both before and after childbirth, women are given a little extra courage to get through the labor pains themselves and any other risks to their little one’s life.

What about fathers?

One study analyzed groups of about 20 men and women, some with children or a baby on the way and some without.

Using magnetic resonance imaging, researchers discovered changes in gray matter in mothers but not fathers.

However, this study did not examine men who took up the majority of childcare tasks.

Certain theories claim that when a father is the guardian of a child, his brain will also undergo changes that strengthen these abilities.

Specifically, these changes have to do with the production of oxytocin. This hormone plays a central role in breastfeeding, but men are also able to produce it.

Oxytocin promotes a better understanding of the child’s needs and feelings.

What is the explanation for these changes in a woman’s brain?

As with almost everything else that happens during pregnancy, the way the brain changes is closely linked to our hormones. The hormonal upheaval in a pregnant woman’s body also affects her brain.

It is important to keep in mind that these are positive adjustments. The observable effects of pregnancy in the brain are scientific evidence of the special bond between mother and baby.

A mother’s instinct to protect her baby is evident in the brain itself.

So the next time you discover a mother who seems to have “magical” abilities where it affects her child, you have an idea of ​​where those skills come from.

It’s all in the brain: D a wonderful tool that adapts to all different stages of human life.