New Research Debunks Myth Of "Fuzz-Headed" Moms
LatestA recent study has found that, despite what some have previously argued (and what several celebrities have claimed), there is no such thing as “preg head.”
According to researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra, women do not suddenly become “fuzz-heads” the minute they get knocked up. In fact, scientists found that having babies may actually improve brain function. Over a period of several years, professor Helen Christensen conducted a series of interviews with 2,500 women ages 20-24. She had them preform various logic and memory tests, and found that the women who were pregnant during the second or third batch of interviews performed just as well a they did before. There was also no significant difference between the pregnant women and the control group.
Christensen’s findings go against previous research, which found that pregnant women consistently performed worse on verbal and memory tests than their peers. However, Christensen argues that her decade-long study is the most comprehensive in the field and effectively disproves the “preg head” myth. Similar research from the Richmond University in Virgina backs up Christensen’s findings, and indicates that pregnancy may increase life-long mental ability and protect against diseases in old age. Furthermore, Christensen mentions a study performed on rats in Singapore which found that pregnant rats had improved multitasking ability: “The rat data suggests that mother rats navigate mazes more efficiently, have less anxiety and fear and excel at multi-skilling. That sounds to me like almost every mother I know.”
Pregnant Women’s Brains Are Not Mush, Says Study [Telegraph]
Having Babies Can Sharpen Women’s Minds [Guardian]