I have not had children of my own and therefore cannot answer this question.

Why do women, and I'm talking about women who are normally decisive, multifunctional, knowledgeable and have a great memory, appear to loose all of the above when they are in the end of their first trimester going into their 2nd?

Now don't take it the wrong way, I'm not bagging them out. But it is a fascinating, and at times a frustrating period to view.

Where I work, we call it the baby brains syndrome. Because the baby sucks all of the mums smarts for themselves.

So, to all the mum's out there is there an explanation to this phenomena????

Your thoughts?

Oh dear, I'm still laughing! Not at you, ghostwriter, but at the thought that gonna-be-mommies are suffering from 'baby brain syndrome'! Huge smile!

I honestly don't know the answer as I never suffered from it (life was different 'back then' - eek, I feel old! ) but maybe that's about the time when reality is first beginning to set in - truly set in - that eep, they really, truly are going to be mommies!

The syndrome affects not only the mother-to-be, but the grandmothers and aunts to be as well, if things around here are any indication.

Oh MattV.....I hear ya!! I would just like to say - you have my sympathies.
Though you have raised an interesting point...Is it like a contagious ddisease that affects all women who are close to the mother to be?

Or is MattV the unlucky one? Hmmmmmmm the plot thickens.

Thanks Mara, I'm glad you saw the funny side to it. It's a running joke for us at work. We have a young (21) woman at work who is pregnant and anything with to do with accounts/invoicing we have to repeat at least 3 or 4 times a day...sometimes the next day as well because she has forgotten it overnight! And to her defence she's not a dummy.

When I come to think about it the last four years we have suffered with baby brain syndrome.

I wonder though with what you have said Mara, I fit has something to do with work related stress??

If there are any other mums or dads out there that would like to put there input in I would love to hear your stories.

I found the following article here.

Anita Holdcroft, an anesthesiologist at London's Royal Postgraduate Medical School, found that women's brain's shrink 3-5% during pregnancy. This may impact learning and memory. In cognitive tests, more than 70% of women had difficulty learning new information during their ninth month of pregnancy. Performances during pregnancy were 15-20% lower on spatial and verbal tests. Six months later, the brain, and scores, returned to normal. The pituitary gland increased in size during pregnancy.

That's fascinating dc3 - kind of daunting to think so much of our body is effected by simply being pregnant. And no two women seem to have the same 'type' of pregnancy - some "glow" and some make close friends with the nearest toilet bowl for the entire 9 months. Working full time while being pregnant has it's drawbacks (the added fatigue, etc) but I'm still laughing at the "baby brains syndnrome" so many women seem to suffer from.

It's been many years now since I've been "in the zone".
But observing some pending new fathers, I see a similar malady with some guys too.

They leave poker games for no good reason. Don't go fishin' or huntin'. Stop talking about cars, sports, and work.

Might just be an unknown virus? (Giggle)

That still doesn't explain the non-pregnant female relatives that go all jelly-brain, too. Could there be some strange "sympathetic brain shrinkage" going on that we're not aware of?

Well, I can't see why not? If others can have sympathy pains etc, why can't they have sympathy baby brains??

Agreed.Many Husbands experience similar pains to their Wives at this time.So what, if they appear to have baby brains at this time.It's only tempory,and all returns to normal after Child Birth.I think we should have understanding at this time,as I personally am glad I'm a Man,and don't have to go through all these changes to my body, at this time.

I burst into delighted laughter reading your words that you're glad you don't have to go through all the changes a women does when pregnant, DSTM, - I read somewhere that if men had to have the babies, there would be only one per family. Period. True or not, we women do seem have have got the brunt of the load when it comes to body changes through our lifetime.

Hmmm ... okay, women can get 'baby brains' ... and men can get 'mid-life crisis', which undoubtedly drive their co-workers a tad looney, too

Yup. Th' wimmin-folk go back to rearin' the young 'uns, and the men-folk go back to ridin' aluminum rowboats down ski-jumps.

Only found out the other day that Im pregnant(Never trust the pill) , 3 weeks roughly... So ill see if this condition affects me. .LOL.

uhh...........congrats IceAngels??

(Is that the proper response?)