Rethinking Baby Brain

Around 80% of pregnant women report some degree of memory change, and similar patterns show up in the postpartum period. It’s real, I experience it myself. You probably have too. Pregnancy brain. Mum brain. Baby brain.

But here’s where I think the narrative around “mum brain” fails us. We focus almost exclusively on the slight cognitive challenge of feeling forgetful and ignore the extraordinary capacities that are gained during this season. This personal apology reinforces the cultural expectation that caregiving should be invisible, that mothering should be done quietly, behind closed doors, not interfere with other parts of our life, particularly our role in work outside the home (ahem capitalist patriarchy). The things we are forgetting in those moments, when we have 'baby brain’, usually have no relevance to our capacity and adaptation for care giving. And actually, that’s probably why we forget them. Our brain has undergone neural pruning because we have more critically important things to think about.

When researchers test memory in pregnant women using ecologically relevant information, meaning things related to their baby (literally the only information that matters to the nervous system in that moment), the results dismantle the concept of baby brain. Pregnant women show enhanced learning and stronger long-term memory compared to women who have never given birth.

Evolutionary adaptation, not deficit.

Emerging neuroscience shows that parenthood in both birthing and non-birthing parents involves sophisticated, adaptive shifts in brain function, not a decline.

Mothers have a significant reorganisation of brain structure particularly in regions involved in emotional processing, social attunement and long-term caregiving. Including measurable changes in grey matter volume across areas like the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus (memory-related regions) that persist for up to six years postpartum. This is likely what makes us feel forgetful. But my argument is that we forget things that probably don’t matter. These changes are not associated with poorer cognitive performance and are usually linked to enhanced caregiving sensitivity and incredible evolutionary adaptation.

The maternal brain prioritises what matters most for survival of the infant, and dampening what is non-essential noise. This includes highly refined emotional regulation, faster recognition of infant cues, and a more efficient neural response to stress and threat.

We need to liken matrescence to adolescence: a hormonally charged, neuroplastic developmental window that reshapes attention, motivation, identity and behaviour.

Baby brain is not a deficit, but evidence of the extraordinary neurological adaptation required to take on the profound work of mothering.

But it is taxing and depletion is very real.

When we view baby brain through this lens of neuroplasticity and adaptation rather than dysfunction, we also have to acknowledge that this heightened state of brain rewiring is resource-intensive. It demands iron, DHA, choline, magnesium, protein, sleep, and stable blood glucose to build new neural architecture, regulate emotion, and sustain the high-level demands of parenting. Nutrient repletion and postnatal care become critical biological requirements that directly shape mood, cognition, energy, long term health and resilience. This is where naturopathic medicine steps in.