Can pregnancy and motherhood lead to memory lapses in women? In this week's episode of The Lab, Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad delve into the subject of whether pregnancy brain or "momnesia" is a medical condition or a myth. Dr. Keith Kesler weighs in to discuss studies on the topic and also looks at what effect hormones such as estrogen and progesterone have on moms. DadLabs Ep. 605 is brought to you by BabyBjorn.

Daddy Clay: Today in The Lab. Pregnancy brain - medical condition or myth?
Daddy Brad: Now we have no trouble remembering who makes the best baby gear in the world, it's BabyBjorn. Fabulous design and fabulous safety. BabyBjorn.
Daddy Clay: So pregnancy brain is one of those things that people discuss anecdotally so often that we just accept that it's a medical side effect of pregnancy. But is it?
Daddy Brad: To find out, we interviewed Dr. Keith Kesler. He's an Austin psychiatrist and brain chemistry expert.
Dr. Kesler: With better neuro-imaging techniques, we're able now to see in real time what the effects are of different phases of life. And what they found in a study in Canada is that there's a diminishment in the volume of the brain of about 4%. In particular, there's a diminishment in the volume of hippocampus which is an area that's responsible for new memories and for spatial relationships. It would seem logical that if that's shrinking, then it's not as effective and that would account then for women forgetting how they get to the grocery store, losing track of where they are even in their own neighborhoods, and forgetting what the name of their kid is. Laboratory studies with animals, with rats, they're finding that many of the things that women have been complaining about can be reproduced in the lab. The brain shrinks, but with the flooding of all of these hormones in the brain of progesterone, particularly, but also estrogen, it seems that the progesterone actually helps increase, overall increases nerve growth in the deep portions of the brain that are protective later for dementia with women. There may be some benefits over the long term. They've done studies with pregnant women and with women that have never had children, and they've followed them over time, and have found that there may actually be an improvement in overall cognitive function in a woman because of having been pregnant. Biting your tongue, being patient, and writing everything down much like a contract so that everybody remembers what was talked about. So in some ways, it's like most things in a relationship. It's infusing a lot of humor into it.
Daddy Clay: Saying "this is all in your head", not a very good strategy?
Dr. Kesler: Not good unless you want to sleep on the front porch.
Daddy Clay: I think of it as being sort of like occupied hard drive space. And if you've got all these concerns and worries particularly the first baby, you're gonna lose track of other, less important things. I wonder if actually mommy brain becomes less and less severe with each successive baby.
Daddy Brad: No, it gets worse, because there's more stuff to think about. First baby, you're focused on the baby. You got one baby to take care of, that's it. Third baby, you've got two kids to take of and a new baby. My wife, the past couple of months, has been putting the powdered sugar in the freezer and the ice cream in the pantry. Ice cream doesn't go in the pantry.
Daddy Clay: That's pretty conclusive evidence. I think that actually pregnancy child brain gets worse after the kid is born. You know Bill Cosby used to say that kids all have brain damage but I think he got it exactly wrong. Kids cause brain damage. And I think it's quantifiable. I think you can find parallels. For example, one kids, ten points off your IQ. Two kids, same as like early stage Alzheimer's, kind of like Ron Reagan when he was in office. Three kids, that's definitely spongiform, encephalitis. Four kids, lobotomy.
Daddy Brad: Is that why I drool a lot?
Daddy Clay: Probably so.
Daddy Brad: Yeah.
Daddy Clay: You know what, this is all for The Lab this week. We want to thank you for joining us. We want to thank our sponsors BabyBjorn. You don't want to forget this, no matter what, no matter where you go, no matter where you are with your kid. Remember, BabyBjorn, best designed products on the market.
Daddy Brad: Adds IQ points.
Daddy Clay: We'll see you next time here in The Lab.