Pregnancy Brain – Its a Thing

During pregnancy and beyond, you may find yourself struggling to remember details, focus on tasks, or give your undivided attention to just about anything. This is casually referred to as “pregnancy brain” or “mommy brain.”

Pregnancy brain is something a lot of women complain about and did you know it’s actually something that can be proven by science! Researchers at Deakin University undertook a meta-analysis of 20 studies involving more than 1,200 women and found overall cognitive functioning was poorer in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women. 🤗

Although it’s annoying, it’s usually not something that affects your ability to work or perform day-to-day tasks. ⁣

Reasons For Pregnancy Brain

So What are some of the reasons why you might end up with a Pregnancy Brain?
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Firstly, most likely a change in sleep patterns will make you more tired than usual, and when you’re tired, you are more forgetful!⁣
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Secondly, believe it or not, the increase in hormones also affects your brain! Progesterone, estrogen and oxytocin all affect the brain. They all can affect spatial memory, which helps you remember where things are.⁣
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Pregnancy changes your attention too. You are more focused on baby-related things and therefore your brain doesn’t register other things as easily.⁣
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It is also possible that these changes in thought patterns and information processing are intentional and there for a purpose. Memory impairment might be helpful for women to forget about other stuff and focus only on the well being of their child! I think that makes perfect sense!⁣

Tips for dealing with pregnancy brain

So now we understand why you may have it, what can you do about your “momnesia”⁣. Here are a few tips which might help.

• Write stuff down – Making lists will help keep you on task and you’ll forget things less often!⁣ Try writing things down on your phone so that you have lists with you wherever you go
• Get more sleep – Sleep will improve your memory and is beneficial for your health in many other ways.⁣
• Do some light exercise – Not only will this help you with your baby brain, but light exercise during pregnancy can also help the brain of your unborn child too! Exercise will help stimulate your circulation and promote blood flow and oxygen to your brain.
• Clench your fists – This may sound strange, but researches in America believe that if you clench your right fist when trying to remember something it can help you to retain the information. Then when you’re trying to recall the information apparently clenching your left fist may help.
• Drink lots of water – Try and remember to drink lots of water throughout the day. If you’re dehydrated you’re more likely to have a lack of concentration, as well as get headaches and nausea.
• Don’t be so hard on yourself! In the stress that is modern life, it’s easy to be upset when you forget things, but be kind to yourself. In the grand scheme of things, there are more important things in life, and forgetting an item at the supermarket is not the end of the world.⁣

How was your memory during pregnancy and postpartum?

Did you have pregnancy brain? Comment below! 👇👇👇⁣

Originally posted 2021-03-16 19:51:17.