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If you’ve ever accidentally offered your crawling baby a milkbone, or rattled off a list of 10 different names before correctly naming the child you are beckoning to, or spent 15 minutes hunting for your car keys only to find them clenched in your fist, the concept of “mommy brain” is probably not a foreign one to you.
Nearly every mom or pregnant woman I know blames the occasional blunder on her procreational status. And plenty of studies back us up, but now a study—a long term study in which over 1,200 women participated—contradicts the idea that there is some sort of decrease in our brain’s capability to function once we become mothers. The Australian study found that there was no difference in a women’s brain function whether or not they were pregnant or already parents.
Personally, I used to blame blunders (I’d be lying if I said they were occasional) on MOMNESIA, however, it occurred to me at some point that I was doing my fellow mommies a disservice. I can’t think of a harder-working group than mommies. We have so many balls up in the air that yes, occasionally, we do really silly things. Not because our brain cells are left on the delivery room floor, but because suddenly, our workload quadruples and it can be a lot to do.
So, the next time you find yourself wanting to blame momnesia for mishaps, stop yourself. Most dads I know don’t sit around blaming their full plate for mishaps; they brush them under the rug and move on and maybe we need to take a page from that book.
What do you think of mommy brain?
-Christine
