Do you have Momnesia too?

January 13, 2010 by admin · 5 Comments
Filed under: Family, Health, Pregnancy

Last night, I was commenting on a great post from my friend Stu at The Marry Blogger. Right as I started typing, the word I was looking for escaped my brain. Poof! It was gone…another mommy-brain moment. How many times a day does that happen to you?

I like to joke about having “momnesia” – but did you know that momnesia, or mommy-brain, is a real, medical thing? (“thing” is the medical term, by the way)

When a woman gets pregnant, the hormones your body produces affects the memory portion of your brain: “the brain is being marinated in a huge amount of [the pregnancy hormone] oxytocin during pregnancy,” says Brizendine. And oxytocin has been shown to have amnesia-like effects during pregnancy.

This continues for a year or more after the baby is born. But as far as I can tell, once I got pregnant with my first child, I was never the same! I have momnesia moments all the time. What about you?

Some may disagree; in fact, some think that being a mommy makes you smarter. There’s even a book by Katherine Ellison called The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter. (affiliate link)

For the record, I have mommy-brain moments all the time. BUT – I still think being a mommy rocks my socks off and we all deserve the title, “Super Mom”. Because in our own individual ways, we all have super powers. I know our children think so…

What do you think? Please share a momnesia moment in the comments below. Let’s have a little fun together!

Tags: children, hormones, mommy, mommy brain, momnesia, Pregnancy, super mom

Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy

October 13, 2009 by admin · 2 Comments
Filed under: Pregnancy

From Twitter:
@pregn #pregnancy Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy Associated With Some Adverse… http://bit.ly/z5ExS

Guest Blogger: Amy Gerhardt

This was a good article except that I don’t think it actually covers everything that I think is pertinent to the topic. I had known about the danger of SSRIs (particularly Paxil, which showed the most birth defects, etc.) during pregnancy. I take Wellbutrin (and did during my pregnancy since all of my doctors and myself decided the benefits outweighed the risks in my case) which is in an entirely different class of antidepressants than SSRIs. It is basically in a class by itself as it works on the dopamine receptors as opposed to the SSRIs which work on the serotonin levels in the body, which are in general more closely tied to depression.

I am unaware as of yet of another antidepressant which also works with dopamine other than Wellbutrin. I have in the past taken Effexor, which is an SNRI (works on the serotonin and norepinephrine levels in the body) and Zoloft, which is an SSRI. Both of these were completely worthless for me, which is why we turned to Wellbutrin because it seemed like the things that were targeting the serotonin were either not helping or making things worse. My doctors told me that there was absolutely no evidence of increased risk during pregnancy while using Wellbutrin, which also helped me make the decision to continue taking it throughout my pregnancy.

Amy has a beautiful and healthy baby boy, Adam (my nephew), who will be 2 in January.

Tags: antidepressant, Pregnancy