At one point or another, whether we’re pregnant or not, we all tend to forget to pick up the milk, misplace our keys, or accidentally burn food on the stove. These occasional bouts of forgetfulness are heightened for expectant mothers who normally tend to be ditzy, but these memory lapses could in fact be attributed to changes in the brain during pregnancy. Hormonal fluctuations, mental, and physical stress take a toll on a pregnant mother's brain health, Medical Daily reported.

During pregnancy, expectant mothers face endless possibilities when it comes to symptoms and side effects, but one that is the root of a lot of speculation, despite scientific and anecdotal evidence, is pregnancy brain. It is no contest that pregnant women report not feeling as mentally sharp, but whether the capacity of their brain is altered as a result is unknown. 

A popularly cited 2007 study published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology found evidence of mental impairment in pregnant women. The analysis was based on 14 studies that were conducted over the course of 17 years that compared pregnant and/or postpartum women with healthy matched controls on measures of memory. The pregnant women were significantly impaired on some, but not all, measures of memory.

In contrast, a 2010 study found there are no significant changes in memory or cognition, researchers found after following a group of women before, during, and after pregnancy. However, the researchers note late pregnancy, or the third trimester, was associated with deterioration on one of the four tests of memory and cognition the researchers conducted.

Whether or not the brain cells of moms-to-be change during pregnancy, there is good reason to feel scatterbrained and absentminded. Pregnancy is considered to be a critical time for the central nervous system development in expectant mothers because it is the only time in a woman’s life where she experiences a massive amount of hormonal fluctuations, Medical Daily reported with reference to Healthline. 

Moms-to-be spend a lot of time thinking about the changes that come with having a baby and how they will take care of their newborn. The physical and mental stress brought on by these concerns could possibly be explained from an evolutionary standpoint. According to the Leiden Psychology Blog at the Universiteit Leiden in the Netherlands, pregnancy-related memory impairment may be helpful because women forget about irrelevant stuff and focus on caring for the baby. It may be female intuition to become protective of their offspring and disregard other facets of life that are not related to the child.