First Beat Midwives

When your flight home gets cancelled and nowhere else is open because it’s Sunday and you are working remotely lol 😝

Is there a better place than this to be planning my 2023….um no!!

It’s been a pleasure walking beside you supporting you both through your pregnancy to parenthood journey.
I wish you all the best for the future with your gorgeous little cherub ❤️❤️

Our bodies are so amazing.

Yep. On average it’s about 5%, and it occurs with each pregnancy 🧠 It’s all thanks to the placenta’s marvellous hormones that a massive remodelling of the maternal brain occurs.

And although it sounds like it’s a ‘loss’ - it’s not. It’s more of an *upgrade* 🙌🏻

I refer to this ’neuro upgrade’ or ’neuro remodelling’ as similar to a iOS software update on your iPhone or Mac. There is tweaking, trimming, shuffling and reforming - but its all for the better!

These all happen in the deep brain structures and actually help set you up for motherhood! These changes are called ‘adaptive maternal behaviours’ i.e the ‘ability to be a mother’.

HOW and WHY… 👇🏻

Throughout pregnancy the placenta serves both the needs of the baby and the needs of the mother. It produces over 200 different types of hormones and its through this ‘endocrine tsunami’ throughout pregnancy that it essentially marinates the mother’s brain in these hormones! 🧠

It’s this very process that allows extra neutrons and receptors to start growing! So, so cool.

Within the brain, between the amygdala (where we process emotions) and the hypothalamus (the HQ for homeostasis control) there are MILLIONs of oxytocin receptors that are installed in a mother’s brain. These last for at least for a few years, and its hypothesised that you get more with each pregnancy! It’s pure priming for birth, bonding and loving! 💕🙌🏻🥰 (+ better or***ms)

These upgrades (neurogenesis) notably affect IQ (yes, we actually do get smarter!), EQ, smell and taste, social reasoning and facial recognition.

They are so profound that a radiologist who is trained in understanding these changes can tell from a MRI who has and who hasn’t been through a full pregnancy, based on these changes seen on a macroscopic level! 💥�
This pregnancy induced neurogenesis is just one part of the powerful transformation that is matrescence.