Let's prove this dickhead wrong...what achievements did you manage during pregnancy?

[MrsThierryHenry]

Theo Paphitis from Dragon's Den claims that pregnant women's brains 'turn to mush': here. Unless this is just journalistic licence, this man is clearly turning hearsay into fact.

The facts appear to be that the brain does shrink during pregnancy, which can impair intellectual function and possibly even cause PND. But this doesn't necessarily happen if you add extra fatty acids to your diet. I know of women who achieved great things before and after having a baby, what about you?

I'll start: I won an industry competition when 6 months' pregnant and was selected as one of my industry's 'bright young things'.

I thought the brain shrank through pg to become the same size as a mans brain - well no not quite that small

I closed the biggest deal of my sales career.

Theo Paphitis is talking bollocks. Pregnancy sharpened me up - I needed to save as much money as I could and that meant really knuckling down.

I drifted a bit for the last month at work admittedly but that was it.

Nothing could shrink to the size of Paphitis'!

got a promotion to a senior position at work,
managed the renovation of my house
during my first pg

I passed one third of an OU degree with coursework marks in the 80s and 90s throughout.

i finished my 2nd year of my degree, pg with my third at a 'b'

Oh, yes, forgot to add I got work promotion, too. Come on girls, keep em rolling in.

i grew a whole new person and gave life

enough of an achievement for me , acksherley.

I managed to consume my bodyweight in ice cream.

Unfortunately I could forget what I was going to say at the end of a sentence by the time I got the to the middle of it. I'm a gender-traitor sigh

If there's a next time I'll be doing my OU degree... maybe it'll be my final year! Then I can redeem myself in the eyes of the sisterhood!

I ate all the Wispas from the corner shop in 2 days.

I came first in the world (about 1500 candidates I think) in my sitting for Advanced Stage in ACA accountancy exams

Did the exam (my final accountancy exam] when I was about 5 months pregnant with DS and found out the results a month later. Got my prize when he was 4 months.

(Unfortunately he is now 4.6 and DD is 2.8 and I think all my brain cells are rapidly going....)

was viva'd for and awarded my PhD when newly pregnant.

Started new career at

i managed to vomit my egg sandwich all over the floor in Boots

well said lulumama!

Growing a life is more than enough .. you really don't need to do anymore.

And my brain may have turned to mush temporarily but I was still able to do more than one thing at once .. unlike any man I have ever meet.

Moved from Australia back to Scotland having to leave my fiance behind. Got a live in job and worked up until I was 8 months pg (fiance came over at 6 months and we had to find a house and move in with nothing all whilst I was working away full time) and only gave up work because my Mum was dying. Coped with that and the funeral and kept it together.
OK so no academic acheivements but it was tough.
And I kept it together and coped when fiance walked out on us 6 weeks after the birth, I had to deal with a particularly horrid HV and fight her to keep bf for 6 months with no help at all

I passed my ACCA Finals first time whilst five months pregnant with dd2. (There were a surprising no. of pregnant women in the room).

I moved house twice, finally got rid of the useless dp, and finally got my act together-more than I've done post-pregnancy actually!

I worked as a freelance consultant for a major drug company. They thought enoug of my work that while PG with DD they used to fly me from Edinburgh to the East Midland Airport, drive me to work and put me up in a rather nice hotel for the week.

They also paid me rather well!

When I was PG with ds, they set up an office in my house so that I could work part time from home!

So I couldn't have been a total fuckwit at the time!

I moved house when pg with ds1 and took driving lessons and passed my practical driving test (first time, no special considerations!) when pg with ds2. Also I worked a full-time job until 3 weeks before due date when pg with ds1, as do most first-time mothers - no small achievement imo.

A couple fo ladies on my antenatal thread have been doing PHD's, I have run business and still doing so until next week, due in 13 days.

Yahey to all of you - (and sympathy to bellyup for your public vomiting extravaganza!). IMO laying your body on the altar as a human sacrifice in order to give life to, nurture and build a whole human being is more than any man could achieve in 9 months! (hmmm...must stop reading blockbuster fiction...the style is affecting my writing).

However it cheeses me right off when people make sweeping statements that all women's brains turn to jelly, hence starting this thread. Every woman on this thread has achieved the most amazing thing ever by bringing a human being into the world, and lots of the women here have managed to do that while clearly still competing on an equal level in their chosen areas of life.

I think the biggest award, if there were one, ought to go to Mugglewump for coping with an unbelievably traumatic and stressful 1.5 years but still managing to give her all to her DD. Sending you lots of good wishes and hope that things are more settled and balanced for you now .

If there are any more women who want to add achievements to this thread, do keep 'em rolling in. Oh, and boycott Rymans, everyone!

during pg 3, dh is in the army and in iraq for 7 months, I got ready to move house on my own ( 2 weeks after the birth) supported the 60 wives who were left behind by organising weekly events for them, completed the first year of my OU degree and managed to still love and feed my two ds's.

I won two massive pieces of work for my company - biggest (at that point) of my entire career. Biggest was won when I was back from maternity leave with a 7 month old and a single parent, working a 3 day week. So fuck you theo

I completed a PhD. Handed it in two weeks before I gave birth. Did the viva when dd1 was 4 weeks old -- had to have a break in the middle of the viva so that I could go out and feed her. Gave paper at international conference when she was 8 weeks old. And I was only 27.

So ner.