What happens to our brains when we become mothers?
Becoming a mother changes you – no doubt about it! But a new study shows that it is more than just staying in on Friday nights, and constantly cleaning up after little people.
A new study has shown that even prior to delivery a woman’s brain activity increases in regions of the brain that control compassion, stress and anxiety, and social communication.
These modifications, triggered by a flood of hormones during pregnancy and in the postpartum duration, help attract a new mom to her infant. In other words, those maternal feelings of frustrating love, fierce protectiveness, and consistent concern start with reactions in the brain.
Brain growth
Interestingly, an almond-shaped set of neurons called the amygdala, which helps produce memory and drives emotional reactions like worry, anxiety, and hostility, grows in mothers when they give birth.
Men reveal similar brain changes when they’re deeply included in caregiving. Oxytocin does not seem to drive nurturing habits in men the method it performs in women.
Video
According to data from the study by researchers at the University of Montreal, the smell of a baby activates a reaction in a woman’s brain if she is a mother, more strongly than if she is not.
maternity & infant
Originally posted 2015-01-12 13:03:50.