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Pregnancy

When did your pregnancy brain start?

16 replies

meadowlark3 · 05/05/2017 14:10

I am posting here quite tentatively and nervously as I'm only 3+5...

I have had boob pain on and off (but mostly got better over the last week) but my main consistent symptom is feeling quite foggy. I had this as well prior to my last miscarriage. I can only describe it as feeling a bit foggy/tired/dreamy as if I've taken a sedative and I'm almost disoriented...

Anyone else have this? Is this pregnancy brain? When did it start for you?

OP posts:

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Firstimefreaked · 05/05/2017 22:38

Not sure quite when mine started, I noticed it more at 10 weeks but that was because I tried putting my gas card in the cash machine. Tbh I didn't know I was pregnant until about 8 weeks, since then done some stupid things, shopping seems to take forever!! I just wonder round dazed buying things I don't need or forgetting what I came for.

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Teabagtits · 06/05/2017 03:35

Never.

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LaPharisienne · 06/05/2017 03:59

It was how I started wondering whether something was up the first time - made a honking weird mistake at work.

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haveacupoftea · 06/05/2017 04:44

Thankfully it's not something I've struggled with. I think a lot of it is stress related, being pregnant is a big life changing thing and obviously distracting.

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Littlelegs19 · 06/05/2017 05:06

About 6 weeks. The things I used to do/day had no explanation! DS is now 5 months old and I've lost the ability to remember key words and string a sentence together properly but could be the sleep deprivation '

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calimommy · 06/05/2017 06:44

About 4.5 years ago with my first. It's only gotten worse since the second and now awaiting third 😂 there is no hope for me now. Until they start sleeping...

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Greaterthanthesumoftheparts · 06/05/2017 06:47

I'm 4+1 and crossed a road without looking both ways yesterday. Had a sudden "crap, I won't make 9 weeks alive let alone 9 months if I carry on like this, moment"!!!

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Hannahbanana1725 · 06/05/2017 08:28

I'm 5+1 and went searching for my phone last night as i lost it. Found it in the bin 🤔🤔😂😂

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Chavelita · 06/05/2017 08:31

Never. And no credible scientific study has ever found any evidence for 'pregnancy brain'.

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Firstimefreaked · 06/05/2017 10:51

www.webmd.com/baby/features/memory_lapse_it_may_be_pregnancy_brain an actual physical affect on the brain may not happen but a chemical and the fact that your brain starts to feel the affects from sleep deprecation.

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Firstimefreaked · 06/05/2017 10:51

Does happen thus a pregnancy brain affect.

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OnNaturesCourse · 06/05/2017 11:23

8 weeks give or take. Some days worse than others by miles. Tried to lock my front door with my remote car key the other day. Stop for a good few minutes, wondering why my car didn't beep at me and continuing to push the lock button.

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Chavelita · 06/05/2017 12:28

The only thing that's consistent across all the studies is a complete mismatch between what pregnant women report and any 'objective' findings based on tests of cognitive function -- the pregnant women reported forgetfulness/clumsiness etc, but in most studies performed just as well as the non pregnant women in tests in lab conditions. A lot of studies have fingered social assumptions about pregnancy as contributing. Some MBA students at UPenn had to rate a manager in one psychology study, and the ones who were told she was pregnant rated her much more negatively than those who weren't. It's hard to avoid the idea that pregnant women think their brain function alters because they're told it will, and therefore notice small lapses of they wouldn't when not pregnant.

Lots of the studies have problems with sample size, or assuming that 'students' will all have similar intelligence/processing/memory capacities. The most authoritative study, by the ANU of Canberra, tested the same 76 women before and during pregnancy, rather than pregnant vs non-pregnant women, and didn't find evidence of impairment.

thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-23/edition-3/maternal-brain

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10storeylovesong · 06/05/2017 15:40

I've felt like this with both my pregnancies. I believe it's a mixture of extreme tiredness, blood pressure through the floor and no caffeine! I'm now 19 weeks and only just coming out of my fog.

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OrangeJulius · 06/05/2017 15:52

I've never experienced this. I've done some of the stupid things people mention above, but I was not pregnant at the time

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DancingLedge · 06/05/2017 16:19

Seems to be very variable.

Absolutely the first symptom in one pregnancy. Thought I had some weird malady, which meant I had forgotten how to spell, how to take notes at Uni, and even though sleeping fine at night, could also fall heavily asleep in the day, waking disoriented not knowing if it was night or day, and if day which one.
All this by 6 weeks. And not a suspicion in my mind of pregnancy.

Not so in subsequent pregnancies.

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