What is Mummy Brain?
Have you heard of the expression called “Mommy Brain?”
I experience “Mummy Brain many times a day. Sometimes they are more dramatic…
For our summer holidays, we stay in the UK, usually holidaying in a small cottage in North Wales. I take the children, and travel by train, while my husband packs up the car and drives to the holiday house.
This story happened on our way home from our annual summer holidays. The past 2 years at the end of the holidays, we had departed from the main station, Holyhead. This year we departed from a very small station near our location. There are a handful of trains that stop at the station every day. I read the name of the main station on the ticket, I heard my husband mention many times that this year we would depart from the main station. He said the name of the station, a number of times. Guess what…
I still booked a taxi to the small out of the way station. I was surprised when the train, a super fast intercity, did not stop at the station… I checked my tickets and I realised my mistake…
The science behind “Mummy brain” is working memory deficit.
There is a system in the brain called the working memory. The working memory is a cognitive system that temporarily holds a limited capacity of information for processing for a short amount of time.
The working memory is vital for optimal daily functioning. The average person’s working memory can be compared to a small table that can only hold around 4-7 items of information at one time. When a mother has the capacity to hold 4 items in her working memory, when a 5th item is placed on her “working memory table” one of the other 4 gets dropped off. This partly explains the phenomenon of “Mummy brain.” When the brain is loaded with more information, then this stresses the working memory, and memory capacity lessens. Exhaustion greatly contributes to temporary “Mummy brain.”
Exhaustion can reduce the working memory to 1 or zero. Let me stress that mild processing issues can become worse with exhaustion and stress. One can hear one thing, and understand something completely different. This can have disasterous consequences.
Many of our clients who suffer from “Mummy brain” greatly benefit from improved time planning and organisation skills. We find that our clients already have a good base level of organisation and time skills, however the great responsibility of motherhood, and the stresses of daily life necessitate an upgrade in one’s skills. Clients report that improving one’s skills creates an inner anchor of calm and stability. This improvement has been noted to quiet the white noise that is common with “Mummy brain” and improve one’s focus and overall functioning.