MommyBrain, Your Superpower
Article provided by ICPA, Inc. | By Gabrielle Manto, DC
Birth, the most miraculous experience as a woman, shapes the terrain of the mother’s brain. There tends to be negative talk around “mommy brain” and the fogginess and forgetfulness that mothers may experience; however, “mommy brain” is a superpower unlike any other.
During pregnancy, a mother’s brain actually decreases in volume, but this does not mean that there is a loss of function. Barba-Muller et al. (2019) discovered that there was a decrease in gray matter in the anterior and posterior cortical midline, prefrontal, and temporal cortex during pregnancy. This helps to prime the brain for the dramatic changes that will occur during the postpartum period. Pawluski et al. (2023) state that from day zero to day forty during the postpartum period, the mother’s brain diverts its mental energy away from the logical, rational thinking part (prefrontal cortex) to the emotional, reactive part of its brain (amygdala). This synaptic pruning helps the mom become more hypervigilant to anything that may be dangerous in order to protect the new baby. This also helps mom to decipher each of her baby’s cries and how to properly tend to them. The ventral striatum, which is a region of the brain that has a prominent role in the reward system, was shown to be reduced during pregnancy, but then increases in size after birth while physically gazing at her newborn. When a new mother, especially during the early phases of motherhood, is presented with stimuli from her baby, like seeing pictures of her baby, smelling that glorious new baby smell, or hearing the baby coo, this heightens the mother’s reward center in her brain. These changes in the ventral striatum are thought to help the mother with responsiveness to her infant, express empathy, and enhance overall caregiving behaviors. An increase in gray matter volume was also shown in the parietal lobe, prefrontal cortex, and the midbrain during the postpartum period.