How Does Pregnancy Change A Woman’s Brain?

The change that takes place in a woman’s body during pregnancy is partially visible to the naked eye, but in addition to the physical changes, pregnancy changes a woman’s brain. Keep reading and find out what’s going on in a pregnant woman’s brain.

Weight gain, nausea, back pain. The many stressful hormonal changes that make the mood throw up. These are well-known problems during pregnancy, but by no means the only changes a woman has undergone. Not all changes are negative, as some of them help a woman take better care of the baby. Maternal instinct also begins to function even before the baby is born.

How does pregnancy change a woman’s brain?

Science has shown that the gray matter in a woman’s brain decreases during pregnancy. This substance is found everywhere in the brain, brainstem, and spinal cord, and is responsible for processing information. The amount of gray matter in the human brain is generally related to intelligence.

Surprisingly, the decrease in gray matter is most marked in the areas of the brain responsible for empathy. In this area, the loss of neurons just when a woman should understand the feelings of the fetus feels very strange news.

According to the researchers, this  decrease in neuronal connections in the brain empathy center occurs because the brain becomes much more efficient in that task. This means that losing gray matter does not necessarily mean that a woman’s abilities are diminished.

Another major change in the brain during pregnancy is related to environmental perception. A pregnant woman is much more capable of sensing the closeness of danger. This ability is maintained for up to two years after the birth of the child. So there is clear neuroscience evidence for the maternal instinct that so often saves the situation.

Side effects

The mother’s brain sacrifices a certain amount of rational thinking to allow for maternal instincts to intensify, and thus pregnancy impairs certain abilities but heals others.

Here are some examples of how pregnancy changes a woman’s brain:

• Memory:  Many expectant mothers say they forget things, even if it hasn’t happened before. Changes in the gray matter in the brain may explain this phenomenon.
• Stress:  A pregnant woman experiences less stress, which is largely due to oxytocin. Because of this, the mother is better able to cope with chaos and sleepless nights better than normal.

• Social Skills:  Have you noticed that the expectant mother seems like a reader of thoughts? This is largely because a pregnant woman’s brain prepares to interpret gestures. This makes sense; the baby cannot speak, so the skill of interpreting gestures is extremely important in the first years of a child’s life. Of course, it is useful in other areas of life as well.
• Courage: A woman is a little bolder than normal both before and after childbirth so that she can tolerate childbirth as well as the potential risks to a small life.

What about Dad’s brain?

One study looked at a group of about 20 men and women, some of whom were children at the time or coming and some were childless. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers observed changes in the gray matter in the mothers ’brains, but not in the fathers.

However, this study did not look at fathers who take care of most childcare. In some theories, when a father is the primary caregiver of a small child, his or her brain experiences changes that reinforce certain abilities. These changes are related to oxytocin production.

This hormone is a key factor in breastfeeding, but the male body is also able to produce it. Oxytocin promotes a better understanding of the baby’s needs and feelings.

What causes changes in a woman’s brain?

Like almost everything else related to pregnancy, this change is clearly related to hormones. Thus, hormonal upheavals in the body of a pregnant woman affect the brain as well.

It is important to remember that these are positive changes. The noticeable changes in the brain during pregnancy are scientific evidence of a special bond between mother and child. The mother’s instinct to protect her baby is thus evident in the brain as well.

The next time you discover a mother who seems to have a magical ability for her child, you will know better where these skills come from. So behind it all is the brain – that awesome organ that adapts to every different stage of a person’s life.