I'm really not happy about the medical news for infertiles this week. First was the study that showed that women who don't give birth have a greater risk of getting breast cancer than those who do. My message: check those boobs.
Adding insult to our injured uteruses: A new study shows that new moms' brains get biggger after giving birth. Huh?
Apparently, researchers have found that there is a growth of gray matter in the brain of pregnant women. The theory is that the fertility hormones expand the brain in the key areas necessary for the care of a child like reasoning, comfort, etc.
I take issue with this idea - medical or not. I am sure that I have more mom skills than lots of birthing women. I am a rockin' mother to three cats and a mischievous Labrador, and I have been fighting hard to get our son home from Vietnam by engaging with Senate office, writing letters, documenting our case, etc., etc. I would walk through fire for Nate, and I have never been pregnant.
Besides, I totally question the intelligence/good judgement by the Octomom or Duggermom and they've had enough kids for all of us. Perhaps after giving birth to an extreme number of kids the intelligence level reverses.
In any case, even if I don't get smarter because I can't make a baby, at least I won't get hemarroids, swollen feet or stretch marks.
Ugh...very frustrating! I couldn't agree with you more I believe I'm a lot better off in regards to mothering skills compared to A LOT of the people I run into every day at the hospital where I work, sometimes those scientific studies just help to create more stereotypes that are wrapped in judgement and misinformation...boo to them!
ReplyDeleteI hope and pray you get to bring your son home soon.
ReplyDeleteICLW #14
That's a crock of crap! I agree, how can Michele Duggar or Octomom be classified as smart. I bet that study was done by a dumb doctor! ;)
ReplyDeleteHappy ICLW!
~Elaine
I hadn't heard this research. I do agree that it is a load of crap and when you get up to the Duggar's or Octomom it reverses. I like the last line of this entry, it made me laugh :)
ReplyDeletehey Lu - thanks for the advice about the Gatorade for OHSS... I will be stocking up and start taking it now..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.becauseofmatch.com/lesspublic
This is annoying news. I will chose to ignore it! Thank you for stopping by my blog. I didn't get to chez nora this time around but hopefully next time we will!
ReplyDeleteI'd seen the first study but not the second.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can bring your son home soon.
ICLW
http://daega99-arewethereyet.blogspot.com/
Geez, like us infertiles needed more strikes against us. I don't buy the smarter thing though. I know a lot of not smart easy breeders, and I think like you said, we infertiles and adoptive mamas have to be pretty darn bright to navigate treatments, agencies, etc. So I'm gonna go ahead and choose not to believe that one ;)
ReplyDeleteObviously it doesn't make every mother smarter or else we wouldn't be hearing about the woman that left her kids in the car during 100 degree heat to run in and rob a store. Yes, this was on the news here in KY this summer. I could go on for days... Crazy.
ReplyDelete~ICLW
I think this new study is a bunch of BS. The study was probably sponsored by the Octomom's clinic! BTW, looking forward for your book to come out - wanting to read it asap.
ReplyDeleteThat research is harsh! I agree that there are definitely enough dumb fertiles out there that make that study seem a little suspicious.
ReplyDeleteHappy ICLW!
ICLW
ReplyDeleteOr pee when you sneeze!
Now I'm reading through all your posts like the stalky lurker that I am. I remember learning in um...fifth grade?...that brain size is not necessarily correlated with intelligence. (I think the boys had been going on about how their heads, and therefore brains, were bigger, indicating that they were smarter. Responses that the top three grades in the class had been earned by girls for years fell on deaf, or perhaps dumb, ears.)
ReplyDeleteI believe the statistic is that we use about 10% of our brains...so there's a fair question whether smarter people have more brain capacity, or just use more (and I believe the theory is the latter). Learning any new activity, or entering into any new life situation, will create a greater number of synaptic connections in areas of the brain necessary to perform the functions of that situation. New motherhood probably builds face recognition and the ability to distinguish between apparently similar baby cries, skills the rest of us use less (all infants still look the same to me, but I gather their mothers can tell them apart). I would guess these skills are also built by fathers and older siblings, though. Obviously you are building a (formidable) skill set for dealing with the bureaucracy that most new mothers will never have. And on the other hand, I've heard that pregnancy hormones can produce a permanent impairment to short term memory and focus (though that may be simply the effect of the distractions of taking care of children). My last rebuttal: at most, the gray matter growth could make mothers smarter than they were previously. Doesn't necessarily give them an edge on anybody else :).