I’m in the kitchen, but once again, I can’t remember what I came here for. I try, but I only come up with other things that keep slipping my mind: What was I supposed to buy at the grocery store, again? I must make that doctor appointment! And buy that gift for our friend’s kid’s birthday party!
My once-sharp mind keeps coming up blank. A year ago, when I was pregnant, I passed it off as pregnancy brain. After my daughter was born, I used the sleep-deprived, postpartum-brain-fog excuse. But now, I’m not so sure. Did having a baby do lasting damage to my brain? How long can I keep blaming hormones for my mental inadequacies?
Real or Imagined?
Like over 80 percent of new mothers and soon-to-be moms, I chalk my forgetfulness up to “mommy brain” — a mental fog associated with pregnancy and the first few months of motherhood. Experts aren’t sure if the phenomenon is real, though. A 2014 study found that, while pregnant and postpartum women reported trouble remembering things, tests of memory and attention didn’t detect any differences between them and non-pregnant women. But Sasha Davies of Deakin University in Australia reached a different conclusion.
