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PROVO — Pregnant women go through significant physical changes throughout their nine months of pregnancy and the few months following, but the changes don’t make it to the mind, according to a new study.
"Pregnancy brain," or the loss of memory or concentration while pregnant, is a socially constructed idea that a group from BYU says is a myth. Essentially, the idea that has given pregnancy brain traction is that since everyone believes in it, it is a real issue, researchers say.
“I do a lot of concussion research, and what concussion research a lot of times suggests is that how people feel their memory is doing is worse than how their memory actually is,” said Dr. Michael Larson, lead author on the study. “We thought the same thing might be happening by people who were pregnant or just had a baby, so we went in to look between their memory on our tests versus how they feel their memory is.”
This is what caused a group consisting of Larson, Dustin Logan, Kyle Hill, Rochelle Jones and Julianne Holt-Lunstad to start researching the idea of pregnancy brain. They took 21 pregnant women in their last trimester and 21 women who were never pregnant to see how the brains would differ.
They went through tests to check the different cognitive, memory, visual spatial, language and thinking and planning abilities of the two groups. Both groups were brought in twice, around three and six months apart.
It, 100 percent, looked like a myth. So, not only were they not different from themselves, but those scores were almost identical to never pregnant women.
–Michael Larson
“We went in thinking we didn’t know, we were curious to test it because you hear so much about it, that women are having a hard time,” Larson said.
What Larson found was that just like a post-concussion problem, the pregnancy brain was simply formed by social constructs and the woman's mind. The testing brought results that the pregnant women were very much in line with their counterparts.
“It, 100 percent, looked like a myth,” Larson said. “So, not only were they not different from themselves, but those scores were almost identical to never-pregnant women.”
However, how they felt was considerably worse. The mood, perceived memory and quality of life was down in all situations for the pregnant women. They felt worse about their test results.
The study adds that the pregnant group reported much worse memory function than the never-pregnant women, meaning they felt their memory was far worse than it actually was. The quality of life was also down, but this seems like a result of pregnancy and a newborn. Things like sleeping and personal time hurt the quality of life in those situations, the researchers said.
Holt-Lunstad is a mother of two, and while she saw these dips in her own life, she didn’t credit pregnancy brain but essentially sleep deprivation, which is consistent with the study.
Larson wanted to point out that the study's aim wasn't to diminish anyone who believed she had learning or memory problems; it was actually about showing these women that they can do better.
“I think the one thing is, we don’t want people to think we’re being pejorative or we’re down if they think their memory is bad,” Larson said. “We hope the study gives them hope: 'Hey, I can do well even if I just had a baby or I’m pregnant. It doesn’t mean my memory will be bad.'”
Contributing: Nkoyo Iyamba
