Pregnancy Doesn't Cause Memory Problems

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There's no evidence to suggest that pregnancy affects a woman's cognitive abilities, says an Australian study that challenges the widespread belief that pregnant women suffer memory problems.

The Australian National University study included 2,500 women aged 20 to 24 when they were first interviewed in 1999. The 76 women who were pregnant in follow-up sessions in 2003 and 2007 scored the same on logic and memory tests as they did in the initial interview, Agence France-Presse reported.

In addition, there were no differences between the pregnant women and the other women.

"It really leaves the question open as to why (pregnant) women think they have poor memories when the best evidence we have is that they don't," study leader Professor Helen Christensen told AFP.

She suggested that normal lapses in memory may be blamed on pregnancy, because that's what's foremost in expectant mothers' minds.