Baby Brain: It Does Exist And It Could Make Pregnant Women Crash Their Cars

It's often uttered in exasperation as an excuse for mums-to-be who are wondering HOW they managed to forget the conversation they were just having, or why they put their mobile phone in the fridge.

But so-called 'baby brain' may have more sinister effects that we've previously thought. New research has found that pregnant women are more likely to have a car accident than their non-pregnant peers.

Research at the University of Toronto found that pregnancy ups the risk of a car crash by a frightening 42 per cent.

Researchers didn't specifically suggest that baby brain causes accidents per se, but they did explain that the mental fog many mums-to-be report experiencing means women should be aware that they need to drive more carefully during pregnancy.

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They added that about half of pregnant women 'complain of sporadic cognitive lapses'.

Yahoo Celebrity reporter Amy Nickell, who's pregnant with her first child, agrees adamantly that baby brain is a real and serious phenomenon.

"Baby brain struck me at round 15 weeks," she says. "I felt like the limited concentration skills I had just packed up entirely and I was operating with a constant slight hangover.

"Obviously, I am thinking about a lot of new things and it was as if a shelf in my brain just got so full that everything slid off one end."

She refers to one specific example of baby-brained scattiness: "Last week I went for dinner and coming out of the restaurant I realised I couldn’t find my car keys.

"I hadn’t left them in the restaurant so was very confused. I then found that not only had I left the car unlocked – I had put my keys in the glove compartment before getting out!"

In separate research at Royal Holloway, University of London, investigators have suggested that baby brain is due to the right side of women's brains becoming more dominant during pregnancy as their body and brain prepare to bond with their babies. This side of the brain deals with emotions.

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Psychologist Dr Victoria Bourne explained that this helps women process subtle facial expressions, particularly when looking at babies' faces - key when baby arrives.

Amy has experienced this too.

"I've been able to gauge peoples’ moods more easily since being pregnant and I definitely feel more in tune with people.

"I have also felt very empathic and found myself getting seriously over emotional when confronted with other people’s problems or even particular TV programmes!"

No one is completely sure exactly what this foggy brain that's experienced by so many is caused by but likely suggestions include hormones and even tiny movements by the foetus that trigger a reaction in the brain.

Whatever it is, if you're regularly putting coffee on your cereal instead of milk, make sure you're paying attention when you get behind the wheel.