Your Pregnant Brain: Part 2
What happens to your brain when you’re pregnant? Jordan Gaines Lewis, a Neuroscience Doctoral Candidate at Pennsylvania State University, talks about clumsiness, food cravings, and moodiness.
My forgetful friend – the subject of “Your Pregnant Brain: Part 1” (see BUMP + Baby Issue 4) – gave birth to a baby girl recently. She’s a beauty, and I know her mum agrees that the morning sickness, crazy sense of smell, and forgetfulness were worth it in the end.
In the meantime, while she’s experiencing a whole new set of biochemical processes that happens when a woman becomes a mother, let’s re-explore even more crazy changes that affect – or originate in – the brain during pregnancy. What causes clumsiness, food cravings, and moodiness?
Tripping over everything
Anecdotally, many women report that one of their earliest signs of pregnancy was that they felt clumsier: Constantly dropping their keys, spilling milk in the kitchen, or tripping over their own feet. In fact, one study reported that 27% of women fell at least once during pregnancy, which is similar to the prevalence of falls in those older than 65 years.
