Am I Going Crazy or What?

The past few weeks has been super "bats in the belfry" hectic for me.  Not enough though for me to walk into a room wondering why I went in there to begin with or searching everywhere for my keys only to realize it was in my pocket the whole time.

Early amnesia? Nope.

Blame it on the p-p-p-p-pregnancy brain. (Yes, that would be me trying to mimic Jamie Foxx)

I truthfully did not have this issue with my first pregnancy but all of a sudden it hit me like a bolt of lightning in this one.  So what? Is there really such a thing as Pregnancy Brain?
I've heard it called many things actually: Mommy Brain, Placenta Brain, Pregnancy Amnesia, Momnesia... hilarious sounding, right?
But, if you're hit with it, it's not so funny. In fact, it was rather dangerous for me last week while I was warming up some soup on the stove top. Totally forgot I was, went upstairs to bathe my three year old while having a quick catch-up phone call with a friend.
It wasn't until I smelled the strong scent of chicken broth and something burning that I remembered I was heating up some soup. Aack!  
I've heard two kinds of views - some telling me that it's a myth, others saying that there really is such a thing!
So which one is it? Are we just blaming our own forgetfulness on the fact that we're pregnant? The same way we blame our pregnancy when we're stuffing our faces with ice cream and Popeye's chicken?

Hormonal much?

Surging hormone levels and new priorities may explain why pregnancy brain happens.

"There are 15 to 40 times more progesterone and estrogen marinating the brain during pregnancy, and these hormones affect all kinds of neurons in the brain," says Louann Brizendine, MD, director of the Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco and author of several books, including the Male Brain.

"By the time the woman delivers, there are huge surges of oxytocin that cause the uterus to contract and the body to produce milk -- and they also affect the brain circuits."

And pregnancy also shuffles what gets your attention. "You only have so many shelves in your brain so the top three are filled with baby stuff," Brizendine says.

Your IQ doesn't change, but your priorities sure do.

Hormones may also affect spatial memory -- which includes remembering where things are -- in pregnant women and new moms, a recent British study shows.

Aah, so there we go.  A proper scientific explanation.  I knew I wasn't going cuckoo for cocoa puffs!

So for those that haven't experienced it yet, you wonder: What does pregnancy brain feel like?


Pregnancy brain is "the feeling of walking into a room, going after something, and not remembering what you went for about five to 10 times a day," Brizendine says.

"Pregnancy brain is about forgetting where you put your keys or forgetting three of 27 items in the grocery store," says Donnica Moore, MD, a women's health expert based in Far Hills, N.J.

There may also be an evolutionary aspect to pregnancy brain, Moore says. "It has been postulated that from an evolutionary standpoint this memory impairment may be helpful so that women will forget about other stuff and focus on caring for the child."

Put another way: Having pregnancy (and babyhood) on the brain can result in pregnancy brain. Many pregnant women and new moms spend a lot of time thinking about the changes that having a baby will bring or taking care of their newborn and as a result, their short-term memory may suffer.

Lessons From Pregnancy Brain

Pregnancy brain "should serve as your first tip-off that when you are preparing to have a baby, you need to simplify other areas of your life, because life is about to get a lot more complicated," Moore says.

When pregnancy brain continues after childbirth (and it often does), sleep deprivation is clearly a contributing factor. "Women accumulate up to 700 hours of sleep debt in the first year after having a baby, and that causes the brain not to be at its best for things other than caring for the baby," Brizendine says.

Nipping Pregnancy Brain in the Bud

Pregnancy brain can often be offset by these two steps:

1) Write things down. Whether it's a grocery list or a list of questions to ask your obstetrician, jotting it down helps.
"Most patients comment, 'I have to write my questions down or I will forget,' and then mention that they are more forgetful in general," says Geeta Sharma, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center  "Make lists, use a day planner, and keep your sense of humor," Moore says.

2) Get more sleep. This may be tricky for new parents. But it can boost short-term memory. "Most moms need more deep sleep and within a week of getting better sleep, some of this momnesia stuff goes away," Brizendine says.

Is It More Than Pregnancy Brain?

Momnesia usually isn't cause for concern. But not all memory lapses are harmless.

"I forget everything now," says Robin, a mother of two in New Rochelle, N.Y., who asked that her last name be withheld because she's embarrassed by her pregnancy brain problems. "I get in the shower and after 10 minutes, I forget if I washed my hair or not, and I only shave one leg sometimes. I first noticed it during my second pregnancy and it has gotten worse. It definitely may be related to sleep deprivation and the constant demands of motherhood, but I also fear that it could be early-onset Alzheimer's."

Fear not, Brizendine says. "This type of memory loss or mental slippage is totally normal and not likely to be a sign of anything more serious than sleep deprivation," she says.

Brizendine's rule of thumb: "If your memory problems are getting in the way of taking safety precautions or if you find yourself doing things like forgetting to put your child in the car seat, worry. Otherwise, it's normal."

Martin agrees. "Forgetting where you park your car in a multilevel mall parking lot or whether you shampooed your hair can happen, and these are not signs of a true memory disorder," she says.

But if you forget something like how to drive a car, or how to get to your longtime favorite mall (something that I highly doubt will ever happen to me), consult a doctor.

My fellow Preggo's: We are not bonkers after all!


Credits: www.webmd.com