Mommy Brain?

You've probably heard the expression "mommy brain," which seems to be the new term for the forgetfulness that often seems to accompany pregnancy and motherhood. I found myself using this term when I was pregnant with my daughter, and I frequently feel silly for forgetting things in my everyday life; things that never would have slipped my mind in my pre-pregnancy, pre-motherhood state. I recently picked up a book from the library called Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes us Smarter. This book makes a lot of sense to me and brings a sense of relief when I often think, "What the heck happened to my mind?" The book looks at a variety studies of the brain and the active & inactive parts of the brain, especially focusing on pregnant women and mothers. The premise is this: mothers have so much more on their mind and are forced to multi-task way more than their non-mother counterparts that the brain is forced to work in a much more complex way. With the increased load of tasks and responsibilities, emotions, and physical exhaustion that accompanies motherhood, mothers feel that they are forgetting things and their brain is "slipping" in ways. The truth is that mothers have so much more on their plate that their brain is doing much more on a daily basis. So, we're not forgetting more, we're doing more. Makes sense for me. I am done with the phrase "mommy brain" and will advocate for moms everywhere that nothing is wrong with them. What a relief!