Can pregnancy and motherhood make us smarter?

I just received my latest APA Monitor in the mail, which is the monthly publication all members of the American Psychological Association receive. The cover actually excited me with the big headline: The Pregnant Brain: How Pregnancy And Motherhood Change A Woman’s Brain—For Good. We have been hearing about studies related to this for several years now, but it was nice to have validation on the deficits I noticed during pregnancy and beyond and receive some hope that motherhood has other advantages than the more obvious ones.

Basically, multiple research studies document the fact that most women experience cognitive deficits during pregnancy. Studies confirm that women perform worse on memory tasks and other cognitive abilities. In fact, the most fascinating confirmation of “baby brain” was found in a study by Oat ridge et. al. in the January 2002 American Journal of Neuroradiology showing that that women’s brain volume diminished by about 4 percent during pregnancy and returning to normal after delivery!

The Monitor summarized other research showing most of these deficits appear to reverse after pregnancy and nursing. Research also speculates that these changes may serve as a means to allow mothers to eventually exhibit improved cognitive functions. There has even been research to show that mothers exhibit improved cognitive functioning and less memory decline than individuals who have never given birth (well, so far at least in rats).

So being pregnant may make you stupid, but it will go away once the baby is born and this process may help you become smarter into your old age.