Question: Does being pregnant affect a woman's memory?

Nadine Mirza answered on 14 Nov 2018: last edited 14 Nov 2018 9:58 pm

Yes. Pregnancy has been shown to impact women’s memories and sometimes causes memory loss. It’s not exactly severe in the sense that it could dangerous but women have shown to lose memory over difficult or unfamiliar tasks. These issues with memory can last even after the birth, for up to a year. Fair enough- I’d be knackered too after growing a human 😀
This has been linked to pregnancy hormones which can effect brain cells, particularly those in the hippocampus which regulates a lot of our memories. Pregnancy hormones can also cause slight bouts of depression, which has also been associated with poor memory. And because these hormones are still in women’s systems even after birth (coupled with so much lack of sleep!) it takes a while for their memory to come bouncing back!