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‘Mom brain’ isn’t a joke

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The Atlantic
May 9, 2022

When our culture makes fun of mothers’ forgetfulness, it is abdicating responsibility for the overwork women are experiencing and its effects on their health.

You may have seen it on TV, in your workplace, or at school drop-off. Maybe you’ve had firsthand experience, been warned of its impending arrival, or met someone who’s had it themselves. It’s both a neurobiological phenomenon and an institutional failure. I’m talking about the malady—and the misconception—of “mom brain.”

When women invoke “mom brain,” they’re typically describing the experience of feeling scattered, distracted, forgetful, or disorganized as a result of being pregnant or having children. It’s frequently used as an apology (“So sorry I left my keys in the front door! I was juggling the groceries and our toddler! Mom brain!”). Obviously, parenthood comes along with sleep deprivation, especially in the newborn phase, and losing track of time or tasks is an expected side effect. There’s also evidence that pregnant women undergo shrinkages in the volume of gray matter in their brain that may be permanent, though many experts consider those shifts to be more of an adaptive “pruning” than a dulling…

…Mothers don’t have to live like this. Paid leave, for example, is widely shown to not only benefit the birthing parent while they recover from a physical trauma and adapt to their new responsibilities; it also sets up non-birthing partners to be more involved in child-rearing in the future. If two parents in a household take paid leave, that time allows the family to set a healthy precedent for division of labor. A number of experts I spoke with mentioned that expanded access to postpartum health care could relieve some stress. (“Anything that makes a woman feel like she’s still the boss of her body elevates feelings of competency,” explained Kimberly Bell, the clinical director of a nonprofit in Shaker Heights, Ohio, that offers support and education for early childhood development and families).

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE at The Atlantic

 

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