Motherhood causes a revolution in the brain, says writer – 10/21/2023 – Equilíbrio

After having her first child eight years ago, American journalist Chelsea Conaboy imagined that something might be wrong — within herself.

“I felt overwhelmed with worry and wondered if something in me had been broken or lost with motherhood,” she says.

The search for answers to the drama she was experiencing as a first-time mother led her to a wide range of research on postpartum anxiety and the transformations that the brain goes through. Functional and structural changes in this region of the body stood out to her.

“An important point in this,” says Chelsea, “is that these changes are bidirectional.” “We talk a lot about how we affect our children’s brain development. But children are also active agents in the formation of our brains,” she explains, aged 41, in an interview with Sheet.

Hormones that influence pregnancy and childbirth, in addition to stimuli received from the baby, would be at the center of the revolution that the female mind undergoes.

The action on the brain would help make the organ more “plastic”, or moldable, to the new reality. Areas linked to motivation, meaning creation and vigilance are affected.

“Babies need us to quickly learn to understand their needs and respond to them, adjusting this reaction as they grow. The parental brain transforms in ways that help us adapt to this process,” he says.

“The general change”, according to the journalist, occurs in biological mothers, adoptive mothers and even in men. These are adjustments in social cognition —that is, in the way a person perceives and understands themselves and others— with an improvement in the ability to read and react to their child’s signals.

Capacities such as attention become more acute and, when channeled to the baby, they manifest themselves in different ways. “Maybe like overwhelming love, maybe like concern. Maybe like both,” she exemplifies.

Research showed that what she felt was normal. “There was nothing wrong with me. On the contrary. I was going through a radical change, and although I needed support, what I felt was part of an adaptive process that was shaping me to be the mother my son needed.”

These and other conclusions were brought together in the first book of her career, “Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood”, released in abroad and expected to arrive in Brazil in the first half of 2024.

Specializing in science and health, with publications in outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian and Boston Globe Magazine, the author completed the work after around seven years poring over hundreds of studies conducted by scientists and the experiences of other families.

One of the myths she debunks “is that of maternal instinct, or the idea that the ability to care is innate, automatic and especially feminine.” “This is an idea based on ancient moral and religious notions of what it means to be a woman. But the ability to care grows in us with time and experience, and can develop in anyone who dedicates time, energy and attention to it “, he observes.

The journalist brings up the image of “real motherhood”, as a stage of life that can also be destabilizing and demand support. “This is a period of very deep adaptation and, at the same time, of great turmoil for the brain, which brings with it an increase in the risk of mental disorders, including depression and anxiety. Psychological suffering is common. There is a revolution in the style of life, sleep, family dynamics and neurobiology. That’s why it’s so important that new mothers and fathers have social support and stability, so that this process goes as smoothly as possible.”

Ongoing studies, says the journalist, investigate how histories of trauma, abuse, financial instability and other external factors affect the brain during this period of transformation.

The journalist assesses that, in the United States, the country on which her main analyzes focus, the romanticization of motherhood has been used as a tool of social control, to convince mothers to continue doing the unpaid work of caregivers, at the same time that they have denied the basic medical care and social policies they need to take care of their families.

It reinforces the need for social support, stability and knowledge about what the body and brain are going through. “Mothers are often seen as self-sacrificing superheroes whose love conquers all. There is much about being a mother that is beautiful and even romantic. But motherhood is also terribly difficult, and made even more difficult by political pressures. and social issues that require us to pretend that this is not the case and that everything is under control.”

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