Women have been reporting memory troubles during for years. Diane Farrar, a midwife who spearheaded a study at the University of Bradford and the Bradford Institute for Health to discover any chemical causes for this memory loss says that, “Women in general have been the butt of jokes that we have trouble finding our way around, navigating, and that has been a negative stereotype which I’ve always found to be denigrating. I wanted to find out if there was a scientific basis for the negativity where it concerned pregnant women.”
It turns out, there is. Farrar’s study found that “Altered hormone levels during pregnancy may affect brain regions involved in memory processing. Altered mood and increased anxiety, which may be due to altered hormone levels or pregnancy related worries, may also adversely affect memory function.” Farrar and her colleagues would like to see further studies in the field, according to their paper. “More research is now needed to identify the neurological effects of pregnancy to help guide future research and provide information for women and those involved in maternity care,” she said.
The study reached their conclusions by testing two groups of women, 24 who were pregnant and 23 who were not, on their spatial memory. The computer-based spatial memory tests involved following a square moving on the screen and remembering its location. While the test was being conducted mood, attention-capacity and anxiety levels and, of course, hormone levels, were being measured. Pregnant women averaged a 70% on the test, not pregnant women averaged an 80%.
The good news? Memory loss due to pregnancy isn’t permanent. Farrar told CNN: “We found that memory function comes back, cognitive abilities will be what they were before.”
