A research study conducted at the Australian National University claims that “baby brain,” or forgetfulness attributed to pregnancy, is all in a woman’s head. I know what you’re thinking, because I’m thinking it, too. They are nuts!! Clearly none of the researchers have ever been pregnant.
I think I’ve told you this story before, but I’ll recount it again for those of you who missed it the first time. In my first trimester I drove to the library to check out a few books about childbirth and pregnancy. This particular branch of the library was a block or two away from a building where I used to work for nearly two years. In other words, I was very familiar with the area. Shortly after I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street, I realized I couldn’t remember which one-way street I needed to take to get back to my route home. It felt like my mental map of the downtown area had been erased like a GPS with a virus. Panic set in as I phoned my husband and tearfully explained my predicament. He had to guide me turn-by-turn until I got to a road I could remember. Though he was patient, he was clearly in disbelief. I had taken this same route over a thousand times and I had never gotten lost like that before!
That wasn’t the only occurrence of unusual memory loss. Countless times I forgot to do routine tasks at my job. Fortunately my boss was entertained, but I was quickly getting frustrated.
A few months after giving birth, I took my son to that same library and had no problem driving home. In fact, I didn’t think twice about which way I was turning at each intersection. Do these researchers really think they can tell me that was all in my head?