RRecently, I was talking to a friend who had just given birth to her first child. I thought about all the changes I’ve experienced since having my 1- and 3-year-old daughters. “I feel like I’m a completely different person,” I said.
As soon as the sentence left my mouth, I questioned it. Almost 2 billion people in the world are mothers. Certainly not everyone felt completely different after giving birth. Or did they?
Most people are familiar with the term “mommy brain,” a phrase that describes the mental fogginess and forgetfulness that many pregnant women and new moms experience. But it turns out there’s a lot more going on than just forgetting your college professor’s name, and it’s something called matrescence.
Coined by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael in 1973, matriescence is, simply, the process of becoming a mother. It’s an immense physical, psychological, emotional and social change – and much more intense than most people imagine.
“When I was pregnant with my first child, I thought that pregnancy was a one-time, transient hormonal event, and that when [my daughter] was born, I would simply be myself again,” says Lucy Jones, journalist and author of Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood. “But that’s not what happens. In fact, it is the most dramatic, seismic, endocrinological and neurobiological experience you can have in your adult life.”
Big changes are at stake
While it’s common knowledge that women go through major hormonal changes on the path to becoming mothers, until very recently, research into the brains of new mothers has been lacking. But several groundbreaking neuroscience studies have been published in recent years, Jones says. One showed that pregnancy leads to significant structural and functional changes in the brain, while other demonstrated changes in gray matter in certain areas of the brain of pregnant women. (Interestingly, these changes persisted for years after giving birth.)
Numerous other changes are also happening, although they are more difficult to quantify. Ask any new mother if she thinks some of her relationships with family and friends have changed since she had children, and she’ll probably say yes. There are also pronounced physical changes — like embracing new postpartum bodies that function differently, whether that means pelvic floor problems, hair loss or weakened abdominal muscles. In addition, there are emotional changes, such as a new and fierce protection about our children.
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During the early postpartum period, there is a huge learning curve. Although this phase may seem overwhelming, a study suggests that if the cognitive challenges present during this period continue throughout someone’s life (meaning someone is actively parenting for many years), this may actually be beneficial for brain health later in life. “What we know about the brain is that novelty, complexity, and cognitive challenge are very stimulating,” says study author Edwina Orchard, a postdoctoral researcher at the Yale Child Study Center at Yale University. In another to look forOrchard even showed that the more children someone raises, the younger their brain appears — and that middle-aged parents actually have faster response times and better visual memories than their childless peers.
This suggests a neuroprotective effect of parenthood on brain age. Other to look for showed
mothers’ brains change to varying degrees, says Orchard, who also works on Before and after baby lab, a research group at Yale. “Mothers who experience more pronounced changes also display more sensitive caregiving behaviors,” she says. “They have better attachment or more positive feelings toward their children.”
Stronger than before
“Mommy brain” is a real thing, especially when it comes to word recall and memory. But the idea that new mothers suffer some type of early-onset dementia during motherhood is mistaken, says Abigail Tucker, author of Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct.
Experts believe that the cognitive impairment that many pregnant women and new moms face when they forget someone’s name or put their cereal in the fridge could very well be the result of sleep deprivation, says Tucker. Or it could simply be due to the shift in focus new mothers are experiencing.
“Suddenly, the new mother’s thoughts revolve around a tiny person who didn’t exist just a few months or even minutes ago, and everything else falls by the wayside,” says Tucker. “Maybe there is temporarily less brain capacity left for other things that suddenly seem much less important, like remembering to send a letter.”
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I was definitely sleepless, forgetful, and distracted during my pregnancy and early postpartum period. (My oldest daughter used to ask me why I was distancing myself so much). But I had an innate feeling that I would also become mentally sharper in many ways. Turns out I was on the right track.
Research has shown that pregnant women and new mothers are better at facial recognition and reading people’s emotions, says Tucker. They are more alert and even better in identifying colors and scents, possibly to detect potentially harmful foods. They can also be surprisingly calm in stressful situations: a search found that women late in pregnancy rated a California earthquake as less stressful than other survivors.
All parents – not just mothers – go through a neural transition
Moms aren’t the only ones who go through a major identity shift when they become parents.
“Science is showing that, especially with hands-on, affectionate care, spending time with a child affects the parent or non-biological parent’s hormone levels, brain shape, brain anatomy, and response to the baby,” Jones says. .
A study found that the degree to which a new father’s testosterone and cortisol levels changed when his baby was born could predict how involved he would be with his child later. Another study found that highly involved fathers experienced more activation in the amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for decision-making, instinct, and the fight-or-flight response. A study also suggested that adoptive mothers experience oxytocin changes similar to those of gestational mothers when bonding with their babies.
Greater awareness
Experts believe that maternity is as significant a transition as adolescence. However, the term matrescence (which doesn’t even appear in the Merriam-Webster dictionary) has yet to gain much traction in the 50 years since it was coined.
“Everyone knows that teenagers feel uncomfortable and awkward because they are going through extreme mental and bodily changes,” writes Jones in Matrescence. “But when they have a baby, women are expected to transition easily – to a completely new self, a new role, at one of the most dangerous and sensitive times in the course of life.”
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More research into matriescence is being done every year. Historically, perinatal mental health researchers thought it was important to study mothers for the sake of their babies, says Sheehan Fisher, a perinatal clinical psychologist at Northwestern Medicine. “Now we’ve moved to make mothers’ mental health important in its own right.”
Greater awareness of the changes women go through during this period can be beneficial on both an individual and societal level. Perinatal mental health conditions are common—one in five women experiences one during this vulnerable period—in addition to the majority of new mothers in the U.S. I still don’t have access to paid maternity leave.
“I think our understanding of this period as a sensitive period should be positioned as strongly as possible to encourage governments to federally mandate paid parental leave for all new parents, not just new parents,” he says. Orchard. “Not just as a physical recovery from birth, but as a recognition of the enormous environmental and behavioral identity changes that are happening in this period.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
