The mother's brain: During and after pregnancy

Pregnancy is a emotionally intense experience for women. A study conducted by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona published in the Nature Neuroscience journal shows profound changes in the brains of all women during pregnancy and up to two years after giving birth.

Mother's superpowers!

The change that occurs is that the gray matter of pregnant women decreases in areas related to empathy, in other words, a "neuronal pruning" takes place. The reduction in gray matter does not mean a loss of functions or memory. In fact, it means that during pregnancy, a modification of the mother's brain neuronal activity takes place by reorganizing the neural circuits. This brain restructuring occurs for adaptive purposes.

This change optimizes the functions necessary to manage the challenges of motherhood, such as interpreting the child's mental states, anticipating possible threats in the environment, improving the ability to protect the baby, empathy with the child, or recognizing the baby's emotional state.

It's not about size

During pregnancy, a mother's brain can shrink by up to 7%. This decrease is not due to a loss of neurons, but rather to the adaptive process the woman undergoes. Six months after giving birth, the woman's brain returns to normal.

Many women become somewhat forgetful and absent-minded during pregnancy. This happens because their focus shifts, now everything revolves around their future baby, and everything else seems secondary to them.

Motherhood also makes women smarter. A mother's brain improves spatial memory and learning, learns to handle stress, enhances non-verbal language skills and social skills. Besides, they become brave and protective mothers.

Hormones involved during pregnancy

During pregnancy, a woman's body secretes hormones. One of them is progesterone, which plays a crucial role in this stage. This hormone increases by 10 to 100 times in the maternal brain, reducing the mother's emotional and physical response to stress.

Oxytocin is another hormone present during gestation. Its production also increases, fostering trust relationships with others. It is stored in the brain and starts to be released from the fifth month. It has receptors in all areas connected to the central nervous system for cognitive-emotional-vegetative integration, making its function decisive in establishing the attachment bond between the mother and the baby, released when there is skin-to-skin contact and during breastfeeding.

Senses on alert

Motherhood sharpens the senses. The sense of smell and hearing become more acute, and visual capacity also increases. But it's undoubtedly touch that undergoes the most significant transformation. When a mother touches her child, she receives very useful information about the baby's characteristics and feelings.

The father's brain also undergoes changes

Fathers also undergo a brain modification, albeit in a very different way. They also develop a social brain from the moment they feel their child's kicks by placing their hand on the mother's belly or by seeing an ultrasound of the baby. However, it is from birth, through physical contact, that a very strong cognitive-emotional bond is created between father and child, producing oxytocin and reducing their testosterone levels.