It has long been known that the brain has plasticity, that is, it changes as we grow, learn and live. One of the moments when it changes the most is during pregnancy, when the woman's nervous system prepares her for the impending motherhood.
During pregnancy, as we all know, hormones begin to make their own in every way. The most obvious changes are the physical ones, because they are the ones that are most appreciated with the naked eye and the ones that the pregnant woman most notice, however there are also changes at the psychological level, because pregnant women increase their empathic ability (to be better able to connect with your child and understand and meet their demands).
In addition to this, it has been seen that brain regions responsible for managing stress are modified, something that is undoubtedly necessary for the first weeks with the baby.
The research has been carried out by scientists from Chapman University, in the United States, and according to the researchers, not all changes are positive, because the new skills available to the mother have a cost. Apparently mothers suffer a slight loss of memory.
As explained by Laura M. Glynn, member of the research team:
There may be a cognitive cost, but the benefit is that the mother will be more sensitive and effective (...) Pregnancy is a critical period for the development of the central nervous system in pregnant women. We still don't know almost anything about it.
The study we mentioned has been published in the magazine Current Direction in Psychological Science and its authors also comment that more studies are needed to know the brains of pregnant women, since the majority of conclusions we know today come from the observation of female mice.
The curious thing is to see how the woman's brain changes before the baby is born. Men do not have this opportunity, because in our body no change happens. There is no pregnancy, there is no major change than the psychological one and the real adaptation to the new situation usually occurs more in the postnatal period, which is when the child has already been born, than before meeting him, during the couple's pregnancy.
In women, however, brain changes, adaptations to the new situation and changes in the way of being arrive before the baby is born, as we can see, in a phenomenon that shows us, once again, how sophisticated human nature is and how ignorant we are about it.
