Baby Brain Doesn’t Exist – It’s All In The Mind, Claim Scientists (Who Hope To Give New Mums A Confidence Boost)

All pregnant women and new mums have used the ‘baby brain’ excuse at some point, but in reality there is no such thing. Well, that’s what researchers are claiming.

According to a team of scientists from Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, the condition is all in the mind and mothers and mums-to-be are no more forgetful, or mentally inept, than any other women.

The researchers gave 21 pregnant women a series of mental tests both before and after their baby was born – and gave the same amount of women who weren’t mothers or expecting a baby the same set of tests.

They found that there were no noticeable differences between the two groups of women’s memory, attention span, organisational, spatial and thinking skills – showing that a new mum’s mental abilities aren’t any different to that of a woman who’s never had a child.

What was interesting was that the researchers asked the first group how they thought they had performed and they all thought they hadn’t done well – showing a big lack of self-confidence.

“I was surprised at how strong the feeling was that they weren’t performing well,” says professor Michael Larson, the study’s lead author. “This feeling of, ‘I really am doing badly right now’ exists despite the objective evidence that they aren’t.”

Larson hopes that women who hear about his findings will get the confidence boost they need and “might start believing in themselves.”

The debate about whether baby brain does exist or not has been going on for what seems like forever, with experts claiming to prove both it is and isn’t an actual condition almost every year. While a woman’s mental ability may not be altered, there’s been plenty of research into how other elements of the brain changes during the pre- and post-natal period.    

Previous research has shown that the brain shrinks as pregnancy progresses, gradually decreasing in size until the baby is full-term. It then increases once the baby is born and is thought to be back to its pre-baby size six months after giving birth.

And last year, researchers from the University of London found that pregnant women use the right side of their brain more than new mums do as they get ready to bond with their baby.

“The results suggest that during pregnancy, there are changes in how the brain processes facial emotions that ensure that mothers are neurologically prepared to bond with their babies at birth,” Dr Victoria Bourne, from Royal Holloway said.

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