Baby Brain

“Baby brain” is a colloquialism which refers to the phenomenon characterized by lack of focus, memory lapses, and poor decision-making that pregnant women and new mothers seem to experience. This may be caused by the hormonal changes, lack of sleep, and stress which comes with the adjustment to parenthood duties. Though many view this experience as a myth, a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia found out that pregnant women indeed scored lower on cognitive tasks such as planning, memory, making decisions, and attention as compared to their non-pregnant counterparts. Particularly, the baby brain phenomenon usually peaks during the first trimester of pregnancy which eventually declines from the second to the last trimester. However, it is important to point out that even if the pregnant women’s scores were lower, they still performed within the average range. Hence, the research implies that having a “baby brain” does not significantly worsen daily functioning.