Does motherhood make you smarter? Yes, says a new study by the University of Richmond, as reported by the Times Online.
The findings challenge the popular belief that having a child harms mental acuity.
While there may be a decline in powers during pregnancy, this is more than offset by improving abilities after the baby is born. This, the researchers believe, equips women for the greater demands of life with a child.
“Pregnant women do undergo a phase of so-called baby brain, when they experience an apparent loss of function,” said Craig Kinsley, professor of neuroscience at the University of Richmond, Virginia.
“However, this is because their brains are being remodelled for motherhood to cope with the many new demands they will experience.
“The changes that kick in then could last for the rest of their lives, bolstering cognitive abilities and protecting them against degenerative diseases.”
The study is also interesting because it runs contrary to a 2002 study that came to the opposite conclusion:
A 2002 study by Angela Oatridge of Hammersmith hospital, London, reported that brain scans of pregnant women showed a 4% decline in size.
I found a PDF of the entire study, for those interested.
In the debate over abortion, one thing I’ve noticed is the tendency of pro-choicers to essentially try to disparage pregnancy and motherhood. This disparagement comes in a number of forms. During the ’60’s and the ’70’s, much of the pro-abortion rhetoric was focused on the supposed extreme health dangers inherent in giving birth. In fact, the trimester framework set forth in Roe was crafted precisely on the premise that it was safer (at least in the first trimester) to abort a child than to bear it.
Today, it is motherhood and children, more than pregnancy, that are disparaged. But even this comes in an indirect, almost innuendo, manner. I’m reminded of a recent Newsweek article the premise of which was to discredit the prevalent, almost naïve, belief that having children brings greater happiness than not having them.
Children, likewise, are deemed bad for the environment or bad for the economy.
It’s important to always approach such articles and “studies” with a healthy amount of skepticism. Pro-choicers have an obvious incentive to add as many silver linings to the blood-stained cloud of abortion as possible. A beating heart stopped? Well, yes, but one less carbon footprint. One less mouth to feed in these difficult economic times. You get the picture.
That’s why studies like this one are encouraging. They remind us that for every allegedly disinterested study poo-pooing children or parenthood, there’s another study telling the other side of the story.
