"Baby Brain" in Pregnant Women.

What is Baby Brain?
Mentioned in the best pregnancy books baby brain in pregnant women is a brief period of memory loss (merely a matter of moments) perhaps forgetting a name, misplacing something, or forgeting to pick up something on your way out of the door. Let's face it, it is irritating, but it is certainly not permanent.
Less considered but mentioned equally often is baby brain in new mums. Same symptoms, same outcome.
Studies have shown that some other species become smarter during pregnancy. Rats for example are better at controlling their anxiety and have better spacial awareness during pregnancy.

Can Stay at Home Dads have Baby Brain too?
I have been a work from home dad for a few months now, and a stay at home dad for almost six years before that. I can assure all those new mums and pregnant women that the symptoms of baby brain do not only apply to ladies. I regularly experience the same symptoms, forget to put the washing on, miss something at the supermarket, misplace the garage keys (they still haven't turned up!). So maybe it is more about being around children than anything else?

Baby Brain Study - Results
Now a group of researchers at the Australian National University are saying baby brain does not even exist. Having tested a large group of women in four year intervals, for speed and flexibility of thought as well as both long and short term memory, results were compared for pregnant women within the larger study. As they had expected results were no different. They can provide no evidence that pregnant women become more or less smart than they were before their pregnancy. So scientist consider, there is no such thing as baby brain.

If it is not Baby Brain, Then What is it?
Now I have my own theory about this. Maybe you agree? I recall a particular incident last week, when I had to return to school after dropping the kids off, as I had not made my eldest sons packed lunch. When I think about it in the 5 minutes before we walked out of the door, I had remembered both childrens school bags, water bottles, P.E. kits, my youngest sons packed lunch, dinner money for both (for later in the week), my eldests home work, my wallet, shopping list, bags to put the shopping in on the way home, to put the washer on, to take the bins out, etc. You get the picture!
Throw exhaustion, be it from being a pregnant women or the broken nights sleep and responsibility of being a new mum into the soup and you are bound to miss something.
Anyone looking after young children has a myriad of things to do and remember, yet we focus on the things we have overlooked and in the case of pregnant women and new mums, label it baby brain. Maybe it is in the forefront of your mind as you have recently read about it, or perhaps that baby bump being prominent and often thought about makes it too easy to connect the two.

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