Do you ever feel like memory-impaired Dory from the movie Finding Nemo? I had to chuckle at myself this morning as I experienced an episode of "pregnancy brain" while I was getting dressed and ready for work. I started to get frustrated when I couldn't get my left eye contact out... only after several futile attempts did I realize that I couldn't get the contact out because it wasn't in there! It was morning and I was supposed to be putting IN my contacts. Duh! Then, when I went down to eat breakfast, I realized that I had already brushed my teeth too. Needless to say, I have especially clean teeth today (I brushed twice this morning).
Since about month 5, I've been "suffering" from what is called "pregnancy brain", "baby drain brain" or "momnesia". It's when a pregnant woman or mom to young children becomes forgetful, distracted or absentminded. Those of us afflicted by this phenomenon often find ourselves forgetting what we are going to say or do, dropping things, etc.. That actually reminds me of another instance I had last night while I was cooking dinner...I dropped almost the entire box of angel hair pasta noodles on the floor! Talk about playing pick up sticks! I have to say, though, being able to chalk up these silly antics to being pregnant is great... people are really forgiving!
There is a great debate over the true causes of this condition, but generally, the experts think this short-term memory loss is largely due to a few factors, 1) increased levels of the hormone progesterone, 2) lack of sleep, 3) distracting thoughts about the baby, 4) anemia (I actually am very slightly anemic right now so my doctor has put me on iron supplements).
Whatever the cause, it is actually a fairly common condition among pregnant women (82%, according to The Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing). There have been all sorts of news and magazine articles and TV segments dedicated to this topic over the last couple of months... even NBC's Today show did a segment on "momnesia" last month. Below are two articles I found that try to explain more about this funny phenomenon, if you're interested: click here and here.
p.s. Brian had a case of sympathy pregnancy brain the other day too... someone asked him for our home phone number and he gave his old phone number from when he was a kid growing up! :)
Since about month 5, I've been "suffering" from what is called "pregnancy brain", "baby drain brain" or "momnesia". It's when a pregnant woman or mom to young children becomes forgetful, distracted or absentminded. Those of us afflicted by this phenomenon often find ourselves forgetting what we are going to say or do, dropping things, etc.. That actually reminds me of another instance I had last night while I was cooking dinner...I dropped almost the entire box of angel hair pasta noodles on the floor! Talk about playing pick up sticks! I have to say, though, being able to chalk up these silly antics to being pregnant is great... people are really forgiving!
There is a great debate over the true causes of this condition, but generally, the experts think this short-term memory loss is largely due to a few factors, 1) increased levels of the hormone progesterone, 2) lack of sleep, 3) distracting thoughts about the baby, 4) anemia (I actually am very slightly anemic right now so my doctor has put me on iron supplements).
Whatever the cause, it is actually a fairly common condition among pregnant women (82%, according to The Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing). There have been all sorts of news and magazine articles and TV segments dedicated to this topic over the last couple of months... even NBC's Today show did a segment on "momnesia" last month. Below are two articles I found that try to explain more about this funny phenomenon, if you're interested: click here and here.
p.s. Brian had a case of sympathy pregnancy brain the other day too... someone asked him for our home phone number and he gave his old phone number from when he was a kid growing up! :)
1 comment:
Great post! I saw the Today Show segment, and it hit home with me! Just so you can prepare yourself: 1~ Momnesia does not go away just because you give birth, 2~ It gets increasingly worse with each baby (more on your mind!). :)
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