Pregnancy Changes the Story in a Mother’s Brain
- 2 days ago
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Pregnancy Changes the Story in a Mother’s Brain
Something remarkable happens to a woman's brain during pregnancy.
And I'm not talking about "pregnancy brain", forgetting where you left your keys or walking into the kitchen and wondering why you went there.
These changes are much deeper than that.
Dr. Hoekzema, a Neuroscientist, and colleagues followed women from before conception through pregnancy and into the postpartum period, using brain imaging to watch the transformation unfold. What they discovered was striking: pregnancy produced substantial changes in brain structure and function, particularly within a system called the default mode network, or DMN. (Hoekzema et. al. 2022)
The DMN is fascinating because it becomes particularly active when our attention turns inward. When you're sitting on the porch remembering your childhood. Imagining where you'll be five years from now. Thinking about someone you love. Wondering what another person might be feeling. Or simply daydreaming.
In some ways, the default mode network helps construct the ongoing story of who we are.
And pregnancy appears to rewrite parts of that story.
Hoekzema's group found increased connectivity within the DMN during pregnancy. These changes correlated particularly with third-trimester estrogen exposure and were related to maternal-fetal bonding, nesting behavior and physiological responses to babies.
Think about what may be happening.
Before her baby ever takes a breath, a mother's brain is beginning to create a representation of someone she has never met.
What will she look like?
Will he have my eyes?
What kind of mother will I be?
What will our life look like together?
We casually call this daydreaming.
Neuroscience suggests something potentially more profound.
The maternal brain may be rehearsing motherhood.
The brain appears to be remodeling systems involved in self-reflection and social cognition while simultaneously becoming more responsive to the developing child. Earlier work from Hoekzema's group found that pregnancy-associated changes in gray matter overlapped with regions that subsequently responded to a mother's own baby and predicted measures of postpartum maternal attachment. (Hoekzema et. al. 2017)
This isn't simply sentimentality.
It is biology.
Pregnancy involves one of the most dramatic hormonal transitions of adult life. Estrogen, progesterone, cortisol and other signals rise dramatically. We usually think about those hormones preparing the uterus, placenta and breasts.
But they are also bathing the brain.
Perhaps they are preparing another organ for birth:
the maternal mind.
There is something beautiful about that idea.
We often describe birth as the moment a child enters the world and a woman becomes a mother. Biologically, however, motherhood may begin months earlier.
Her immune system has already adapted.
Her metabolism has changed.
Her cardiovascular system has remodeled.
And somewhere inside her brain, networks involved in self, relationships and imagination are changing too.
The boundary around me may slowly be making room for you. So when a pregnant mother sits quietly rubbing her belly, imagining the little person she has yet to meet, perhaps she isn't "doing nothing." Her brain may be doing exactly what pregnancy designed it to do.
She isn't simply growing a baby.
She may also be growing the brain of a mother.
Finally, in her latest study, she shows us the subsequent reality of multiparous events.
Pregnancy 1:
Self/social cognition → attachment → maternal identity → internal model formation
Pregnancy 2:
Refinement of maternal circuitry + increased external attention → action → sensorimotor responsiveness → managing multiple offspring
That is an intriguing evolutionary-neuroplastic interpretation.
It also strengthens the argument that actual physical brain changes are probably remodeling and in no way detrimental. (Straathof et. al. 2026)
Dr. M
I highly recommend reading the whole articles at the above link.
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