Why Pregnancy Makes You Forgetful... but Helps Your Baby

Baby brain, pregnancy brain, momnesia—the fogginess that can appear during pregnancy goes by many names, but memory loss is only one of the changes that occurs while the brain prepares for an upcoming baby.

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[dorab]

This was the first symptom of pregnancy that I experienced. I didn’t find out I was pregnant until I was 7.5 weeks along. Before I found out, I thought I was developing early onset dementia. 😭

[THEONEANDONLYCurcofromthehills]

Maybe it's nature's way to help a mother forget a lot of the pain of childbirth (or at least some of the most painful parts of it) to increase the odds that she would not stop at just one kid.

[andrineslife]

I just wrote a 50 page academic paper with a mom who gave birth midway through our paper. Thank god this is real, it was so frustrating at times and it wasn't even my brain. Damn you're amazing moms!

[silverandexact]

I'd be interested to see a study comparing first-time mothers who gave birth to their children versus first-time mothers who adopted or had someone else carry their baby. I imagine mothers who didn't go through pregnancy would also have some change neurologically.

[Master_Therion]

I'm sometimes forgetful, but I've never been pregnant. At least... unless I forgot about it! 0_0

[VikiAngel]

I can’t even string a sentence together at the moment. It’s driving my husband mad 😂

[veta]

28 weeks pregnant and can confirm this lol. I thought it was an old tale women tell, pretty cool and also terrifying the more I learn about what baby is doing to me

[boricuamom]

My baby is 12 months old and i definitely still have baby brain. Today i was talking with an old friend and my words were all mumble jumble during the entire conversation and I was thinking what is going on? Hoping they didnt notice.

[Yas.min]

I'm 25 weeks and this explains me PERFECTLY

[arynheath]

I'm currently pregnant I my second and I can a) vouch for the memory loss and b) vouch that it can last forever. 😭 I'm such an intelligent person when I'm not growing another human!! 😂

[busisiwe]

So i searched for pregnancy memory loss - which led me to this video. I' m on my second trimester, baby number 3. Lunch time I bought a meal with two pieces of chicken at the canteen at work, went to microwave the food then as i was about to take a bite noticed one piece of my chicken had already been bitten. stormed to the canteen to complain - as the ladies were trying to figure out what happened as they prepared to give me another piece I remembered I'm the one who took a bite - then realised it's cold, which led me to the microwave. I cried bitterly from frustration & embarrassment & probably pregnancy hormones . Glad this is my last child & hope my brain starts working 100% again soon as I pop, .

[marilynlucero]

Fun story... I have always been forgetful, truly forgetful about most thing.
Where I lived a superior always worked and she was the most orderly of all, never forgot 1 thing....until she got pregnant. She became as forgetful as I am naturally.
From that moment on my housemates at the time teased me that I had chronic pregnancy dementia xD (One group later my terrible memory was noticed too and I got the nickname Alzheimer Light)

[ashi_no_ko]

That's the second video which made me think that someone should write a horror story about pregnancy.

[TheGFeather]

Yet another TERRIFYING aspect of pregnancy/parenthood.

[protohale]

Many pregnant people experience memory loss that can last for years after the pregnancy ends. Pregnancy brain is a measurable phenomenon that affects memory in a very specific way. Studies show that it can cause sleepiness, fatigue, dips in attention and slower processing speeds. It can also make it harder to form certain types of memories, like those that require effortful processing. A 2016 study looked at the brains of 25 women who got pregnant for the first time, and compared them to those of men who weren't.

A new study has found that during pregnancy, women's brains lose a lot of gray matter. This decrease in volume had a correlation with memory loss, but it was also linked to an increase in sensitivity to emotional cues from the baby and emotional attachment. Those changes can last at least two years after childbirth, and scientists don't know how long it takes for the brain to get back to pre-pregnancy volumes.

[joanazacatenco]

This is so true! I thought there was something wrong with me. My baby is 16 months and I am slowly getting my memory back. It is very frustrating 😞

[TommoCarroll]

It really is astounding the amount of change the female body goes through before/during/after pregnancy. It’s really a complete transformation in parts. Nature...you done out done yourself! 🌿Would love to hear if anyone watching this video has experienced ‘momnesia’! What was it like?

[WingTigress]

I had my dissertation during my third trimester and it was horrible, because I had so much trouble remembering my presentation even though I had presented bits and pieces of it before just fine.

[Sam_on_YouTube]

Did they subject the non-parents to extreme sleep deprivation?

[crystalmacau]

Im pregnant now, and tying to study at the same time, today i just felt like i had a whole bunch of sedatives, or antihistamines. Its beyond frustrating. You really sacrifice for a child. And im happy to do so, i just wish i didn't have it take away my drive and intellect for my studies, but it is. Form the terrible morning sickness, have that abate at 16 weeks and be greeted with a new symptom of brain fog. Im trying to roll with it but its hard.