The Mommy Brain

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A: Perhaps, although Kerstin Uvnäs-Moberg, an authority on oxytocin, told me that she's convinced a woman's brain becomes more receptive to the impact of oxytocin after the first heavy dose that comes with labor and breast feeding. What I've come to believe is that the hormones of pregnancy and early motherhood help us form what may be the strongest personal relationship of our lives. It's that relationship--the years of flexing our brains as we deal with the challenges presented by a growing child--that may have the most impact in training us in all sorts of useful skills.

Q: Your book identifies five attributes of a baby-boosted brain. Could you say a little about each one?

A: There are chapters on what being a mother can do for your senses--especially in pregnancy and immediately afterward--for your efficiency (including learning and memory), your motivation, your stress-coping mechanisms and your social skills or emotional intelligence. In each one, I try to guide the reader through all the scientific evidence available, including some cutting-edge research, and also have many women talking about their experiences. So in the chapter on efficiency, which is titled "How Necessity Is the Mother of Multitasking," I interview a corporate executive who found herself with triplets and had to learn quickly how to feed them all at once so she could take a nap. In the chapter on coping with stress, I talk about how new mothers tend to make extraordinary kinds of friendships, based on their deep need for other people. I found this to be true in my own life and only later read how great it is for your brain to make and keep strong social connections. It's also probably good for your children. One study on baboons in the wild found that the more social the mothers were, the better their babies' chance of survival.

Q: Do these attributes give moms an advantage in the workplace?

A: I interviewed many employees and bosses who agreed with this point of view. Joanne Hayes-White, a mother of three and the first woman to head a major city fire department [in San Francisco], told me she actually thinks mothers have an edge as fire fighters, since there is a lot of coping with uncertain and hectic schedules, distractions, changes in plans, need to multitask and care for people. She also sees a clear spillover in her strengthened ability to multitask, from home to office. I've talked to grocery clerks and software executives who say the same thing.

Q: Do nonparents appreciate these advantages, or are there biases against new mothers in the workplace?

A: There are definitely biases. One study I read tested people's response to pictures of a woman doing the same sort of work with or without a prosthesis to make it seem as if she were pregnant. The "pregnant" woman was judged less competent and worthy of a raise. Of course nonparents can also be resentful of the times parents need to be absent from work due to their children, although I was unable to find any research showing that parents take more net time than others.

Q: How do women realize the potential to become smarter with motherhood?