Pregnancy 'does not cloud brainpower'

Hormones during pregnancy have long been blamed for women's apparent tendency to think less clearly, but new research suggests that this is nothing but an old wives' tale. The study by the Australian National University's centre for mental health research also debunked the myth that women have worse memories during pregnancy. For the research, 2,500 women aged between 20 and 24 were interviewed and examined first in 1999, then in 2003 and again in 2007. Of the women that were pregnancy during their second and third interviews, it was discovered that they scored no better or worse on logic and memory tests than previously.

Professor Helen Christensen, who led the research, said that many women believe that pregnancy affects their brainpower, but in reality this is not true.

"We found no effects of pregnancy on cognitive capacity and motherhood also had no detrimental effects," she told ABC News.

"I think emotional factors are likely to influence self report, what people think, but in the actual reality of the objective test performance, that perception is in this case misguided."

Professor Christensen said that she hoped to conduct further research into women's brainpower during pregnancy because she noted that in studies on rats, the pregnant animals actually demonstrated improved multi-tasking capacity and reduced fear responses compared to non-mothers.

She added that this correlates with her experience of pregnant women and hopes that the findings will be mirrored in human research.