For a long time, people have known that pregnancy changes a woman’s body in many ways. Now, new research shows that these changes might also benefit the brain later in life.
A study led by Professor Molly Fox from UCLA has found that pregnancy and breastfeeding may help improve long-term memory and thinking skills in women after menopause.
The study, published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, looked at data from more than 7,000 women who were about 70 years old.
These women took part in two major studies: the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study and the Women’s Health Initiative Study of Cognitive Aging. Researchers followed them for up to 13 years, checking their memory and other thinking abilities every year.
The researchers wanted to understand why women are more likely than men to get Alzheimer’s disease, even when they live about the same amount of time. They decided to look at whether pregnancy and breastfeeding could have an effect on the brain’s health. No other large studies had done this before.
They expected that women who had more pregnancies and spent more time breastfeeding would have better brain function. The results supported this idea.
Women who had been pregnant for a total of around 30.5 months had slightly better overall thinking scores than women who had never been pregnant. Each month of pregnancy was linked to a small but measurable improvement in thinking skills.
Breastfeeding also showed benefits. Women who breastfed for a total of 11.6 months had better scores than those who never breastfed. Each month of breastfeeding was linked to small gains in verbal and visual memory.
While the improvements in scores were small, they were similar in size to those seen from other healthy habits like exercising regularly and not smoking.
The study is important because it adds to what we know about how women’s life experiences may protect their brains over time. Many women notice memory problems right after giving birth, often called ‘mommy brain,’ but this study shows that in the long run, pregnancy and breastfeeding may actually help the brain stay sharp.
Women who had been pregnant scored 0.60 points higher on overall thinking tests compared to those who had never been pregnant. Those who breastfed scored 0.19 points higher, with a 0.27-point boost in verbal memory.
These numbers might seem small, but they could make a big difference for public health because Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people and has very few treatments.
The researchers think that other factors may also help explain the results. For example, having more children might mean more supportive relationships later in life. This social support could reduce stress, improve mental health, or help women live healthier lives.
Now, the team is trying to understand exactly how pregnancy and breastfeeding help the brain. If they can figure that out, it might be possible to create new medicines or programs that give similar benefits, even to women who haven’t had children.
Professor Fox said that learning how to copy the brain-boosting effects of pregnancy could lead to better treatments for Alzheimer’s and better ways to protect brain health in aging women. As society changes and people have fewer children, it will be important to learn how these changes affect brain health in the long run.
This research shows that motherhood may offer more than emotional rewards—it may also help keep the brain strong with age. The study used carefully collected data, including reproductive history interviews and yearly memory tests, to reach its findings.
If you care about brain health, please read studies about Vitamin B9 deficiency linked to higher dementia risk, and cranberries could help boost memory.
For more health information, please see recent studies about heartburn drugs that could increase risk of dementia, and results showing this MIND diet may protect your cognitive function, prevent dementia.
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