Baby brain: myth or misinterpreted?

In today's "why did anyone even manage to get funded for this study" news, it turns out that baby brain is a myth. You know, that whole thing whereby you get pregnant and you all of a sudden forget how to spell your name? That thing we all lived through? Yes. Myth. Aren't you glad someone told you that? Wow. Sure cleared up all that mental chow mein I've been regurgitating for well over a year now.

Except, their definition of baby brain was apparently different than mine. Someone out there apparently believed that the act of getting pregnant or having a baby actually made women stupider, rather than just forgetful.

This was worth a study?

I don't feel particularly stupider since having had a baby, in that I don't feel that my raw intelligence level has actually sunk. But I do very often feel befuddled. Forgetful. Frazzled. And I usually blame it on that nebulous thing called baby brain. Baby brain being a syndrome where a combination of sleep deprivation and the nuclear bomb of a baby in the house means my mind is absorbed by other matters than it previously perused. I think the authors of this study made an assumption about baby brain that I didn't: That it was actually a quantifiable, physiological response to being pregnant or having given birth. Or, more directly, that pregnancy makes you stupid. 

Next time, just give me the grant money. I could have told you that the reason we get squirrelly isn't because of the pregnancy itself. It's because when you're 9 weeks pregnant and spend most of your time willing yourself not to puke on anything in sight, your brain isn't really concentrating on lesser things like taking out the trash. Or when you're 8 months pregnant and you have to wake up every 30 minutes to roll over because your hips are aching like someone's got them in a vise, it's not a stretch to believe your body and brain haven't been rested properly - and sleep deprivation is proven to have negative cognitive effects. Or when you have a 7 month old who utterly refuses to nap, I mean, she falls asleep in your arms and you go to put her down and she wakes up shrieking and is wide awake so you try again an hour later and the same thing happens and you try again half an hour later and the same thing happens and OH MY GOD I WILL LOSE MY MIND - is it really so shocking that I forget to pay the bills right this very moment?

No, it's not a myth. A myth is fictional. Not to be believed. Leprechauns are a myth. Baby brain is not. If what the researchers were trying to prove was that "baby brain" means "mom loses IQ points" - which, did anyone actually believe that in the first place? - then sure, clear that part up. But there's a big difference between raw intelligence and ability to concentrate on every last detail in your life, which becomes nigh on impossible when you have a baby.

Tell you what. Next time you get a grant for something as ridiculous as this, use it to bring gigantic double-caf lattes and chocolate croissants to new moms everywhere. That'll be far better for their baby brain than listening to some academic tell them it doesn't exist.

This is an original post to Canada Moms Blog. Shannon rants at ThreeSeven.ca and saves the world at ecochick.ca.