London: Forgetful moms-to-be may no longer
be able to blame it on "the bump", for a new study has claimed
the "baby brain" idea, that bearing a child affects one`s mind
power, is only a myth.
Previous studies suggested that women`s brains decline
in size by up to 4 per cent while they are pregnant, leading
to worse performance on tests of memory and verbal skills.
Now, an international team, led by Australian National
University in Canberra, has found that pregnancy is not at all
linked to memory loss in women, the latest edition of `British
Journal of Psychiatry` reported.
And, according to researchers, pregnant women should
be encouraged to stop attributing lapses in memory or logical
thinking to their growing baby.
Lead researcher Prof Helen Christensen said that the
"baby brain" effect was "a myth".
"Not so long ago, pregnancy was `confinement`
and motherhood meant the end of career aspirations. But our
results challenge the view that mothers are anything other
than the intellectual peers of their contemporaries," `The
Times` quoted her as saying.
For their study, the researchers recruited 1,241 women
aged 20-24 in 1999 and 2003 and asked them to perform a series
of tasks.
The women were followed up at four-year intervals and
asked to perform the same cognitive tests. A total of 77 women
were pregnant at the follow-up assessments, 188 had become
mothers and 542 remained childless.
The findings revealed no significant differences
in cognitive change for those women who were pregnant or new
mothers during the assessments and those who were not.
PTI