Memory Lapse? It May Be Pregnancy Brain

When she was pregnant with her now 1 1/2-year-old son, Bena Blakeslee frantically paced an airport parking lot searching in vain for her Jeep. Exasperated after an hour of this fruitless endeavor, she broke down in tears and called her husband to tell him that their car had been stolen.

Turns out that Blakeslee, a mother of two in Westchester, N.Y., actually forgot which lot she had parked in. "I also went to the wrong airport twice on the same trip and another time, I was sitting at the wrong gate and completely missed my flight," she tells WebMD.

Sound familiar? It should. Many expectant and/or veteran moms will tell you that they have experienced the kind of embarrassing forgetfulness that Blakeslee describes. It goes by many names -- from pregnancy brain, mommy brain, placenta brain, pregnancy amnesia to the kitschy "momnesia." Pregnancy brain tends to start in pregnancy and continue into the postpartum period.

"The exact prevalence is unknown, but many expectant moms complain of [pregnancy brain] it and seems to gradually subside after the first couple of years after having a baby," says Louann Brizendine, MD, the director of the Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California at San Francisco and the author of The Female Brain.

Studies are starting to back up anecdotes like Blakeslees'. One Australian study showed that many pregnant women do experience slight memory loss, which can last up to a year after birth. The study, which appears in the November 2007 issue of the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, showed that pregnant women have greater memory problems when they are doing unfamiliar or demanding tasks.

While pregnancy brain can be frustrating and annoying, the good news is that it's very normal and can often be offset by making lists, using a day planner, and incorporating other tried-and-true memory-boosting strategies into day-to-day life, says Brizendine.

What Is Pregnancy Brain?

In a nutshell, pregnancy brain is "the feeling of walking into a room, going after something, and not remembering what you went for about five to 10 times a day," she says.

"Pregnancy brain is about forgetting where you put your keys or forgetting three of 27 items in the grocery store," adds Donnica Moore, MD, a women's health expert based in Far Hills, N.J.

New-York-city-based author Esther Blum, RD, noticed that her memory was lapsing during pregnancy. "I would call my best friend and we'd have a whole conversation and then I'd call her later on in the day to talk about the same thing," she tells WebMD.

There are many possible -- and plausible -- explanations for pregnancy brain, Brizendine explains.

For starters, "the brain is being marinated in a huge amount of [the pregnancy hormone] oxytocin during pregnancy," says Brizendine. Oxytocin has been shown to have amnesia-like effects during pregnancy.