Woman’s Brain Altered for Two Years After Pregnancy

Pregnancy - AHC

Not only do you experience extreme hormonal and physical changes, it also involves drastic psychological changes. Studies show that “Scans of 25 first-time mums showed these structural brain changes lasted for at least two years after giving birth.”

“This study, from researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and Leiden University and published in Nature Neuroscience, looked at the brain scans of women before they became pregnant, soon after they gave birth, and two years later, to see how the brain changed. And they compared these women’s brains with those of 19 first-time fathers, 17 men without children and 20 women who had never given birth. The researchers found “substantial” reductions in the volume of grey matter in the brains of first-time mothers.The grey matter changes occurred in areas of the brain involved in social interactions used for attributing thoughts and feelings to other people – known as “theory-of-mind” tasks.The researchers thought this would give new mothers an advantage in various ways – help them recognize the needs of their child, be more aware of potential social threats and become more attached to their baby.”

Source: Pregnancy alters woman’s brain ‘for at least two years’

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