In the category of “conclusions we can’t believe needed to be reached,” Australian researchers who studied 299 women over eight years—including during their pregnancies—found that they were no mentally worse for wear after bearing children. Neither pregnancy nor motherhood had any detrimental effect on each mother’s cognitive capacity, said Helen Christensen, director of the Center for Mental Health Research at
Christensen says previous studies may have linked cognitive deficits to pregnancy because they were comparing pregnant women with other non-pregnant women. In this study, they were able to compare a woman’s mental capacity to herself, by measuring it before, during, and after her pregnancy.
As a counterpoint, Christensen points to studies showing that motherhood is actually good for rats [pdf]: Rat moms are superior maze-navigators and multi-taskers, and have less anxiety and fear than their childless counterparts. Imagine if future research finds that humans have the same pattern—maybe it’ll prompt employers to get a little more generous with maternity leave.
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Image: flickr/ mahalie
