What Happens Right After Conception
Within 24 hours after fertilization, the egg begins rapidly dividing into many cells. It remains in the fallopian tube for about three days after conception. Then the fertilized egg continues to divide as it passes slowly through the fallopian tube to the uterus. Once there, its next job is to attach to the endometrium. This is called implantation.
Before implantation though, the blastocyte breaks out of its protective covering. When the blastocyte makes contact with the endometrium, the two exchange hormones to help the blastocyte attach. Some women notice spotting during the one or two days when implantation happens. This is normal and isnt something you should worry about. At this point, the endometrium becomes thicker and the cervix is sealed by a plug of mucus.
Within three weeks, the blastocyte cells ultimately form a little ball, or an embryo. By this time, the first nerve cells have formed.
Your developing fetus has already gone through a few name changes in the first few weeks of pregnancy. Generally, it’s called an embryo from conception until the eighth week of development. After the eighth week, it’s called a fetus until its born.
Neurons And Synapses Form The Wiring Of The Brain
The brain processes information by forming networks of specialized nerve cells, called neurons, which communicate with one another using electrical and chemical signals . These messages are the physical basis of learning and memory.7 A neuron consists of a cell body and the branch-like structures that extend from it. These include multiple dendrites and an axon, which may have numerous axon terminals. The cell body is the neurons control center among other duties, it stores DNA and generates energy used by the cell. The dendrites receive incoming signals from other neurons, and the axon and its terminal branches relay outgoing signals to other neurons. Axons are sometimes coated with myelin, a fatty substance that insulates the axon and increases the efficiency of communication.
Messages are passed between neurons at connections called synapses. The neurons do not actually touch, however. There is a microscopic gap the synaptic cleft between the axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrite of another. Communication between neurons involves complex electrical and chemical processes, but its basics can be outlined simply:
Source: Adapted by Bill Day from www.educarer.org, 2006.
Medically Reviewed Tips To Aid The Pregnant Brain
- Take deep breaths
Do not be hard on yourself and avoid stressing out as it will only end up clouding the pregnancy brain. Take deep breaths when needed and release the stress out of your system.
- Pen down
If you are facing a problem in remembering things, simply carry a notepad and pen and start penning it down. This could be helpful if you are going to buy groceries, need to make a phone call, have to ask questions from the practitioner, need medications, etc.
- Use digital calendars
Turn high-tech by making use of the calendars to set reminders over the phone to help keep yourself organized.
- Delegate work to friends or family members
You must avoid a pile of work but simply delegating work to friends and family members, instead. This will help you minimize the list and push you off the gray matter.
- Be happy
We understand it is perhaps difficult for you at the moment, but finding yourself a laugh would do no harm. Try booking tickets to the nearby comedy stages, do things that matter and make you happy, watch a comedy movie, read a novel or poems, encourage your partner to partner up and go crazy!
- Consume more choline
Choline is a mineral that helps as a building block in the memory-forming brain chemical known as acetylcholine. As per the researchers, eating plenty of choline-rich foods during pregnancy may help boost the brain function of both, you and your baby. These include beef, Brussel sprouts, whole eggs, lima beans, etc.
- Eat loads of omega-3s
- Avoid having ginkgo
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What Pregnancy Brain Feels Like
Pregnancy brain is “the feeling of walking into a room, going after something, and not remembering what you went for about five to 10 times a day,” Brizendine says.
There may also be an evolutionary aspect to it. Womenâs health expert Donnica Moore, MD, says, “It has been postulated that, from an evolutionary standpoint, this memory impairment may be helpful so that women will forget about other stuff and focus on caring for the child.”
Many pregnant women and new moms spend a lot of time thinking about the changes that having a baby will bring or taking care of their newborn. As a result, their short-term memory may suffer.
Chapter : Second Trimester
In your second trimester, your body will continue to change as your baby progresses in its development. The second trimester begins at week 13, or when you are four months pregnant.
Now, you will start to feel your baby move around inside you, or quickening. You also might see your belly have repeated blips, which are your babys harmless hiccups.
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When Does ‘baby Brain’ Start Kicking In
When does ‘baby brain’ start kicking in? I’ve got a bad enough memory as it is and wonder whether I’ll remember who I am when this kicks in!
Depends how much you want to get away with at work. “Baby Brain” is a great excuse when you just don’t want to do it.
I started making a few stupid mistakes some time in the first 15 weeks – towards the end of that. I find my electronic diary which sends reminders to my phone invaluable.
I don’t think that everyone gets ‘baby brain’… In fact, I think I read somewhere that it’s a bit of a myth, but I suppose if you have sleep deprived and preoccupied with all things baby, then your thought processes may not be as sharp as they usually are!For what it’s worth, my brain has managed to carry on as normal – and I’m 36 weeks.
Utter rubbish that there is ‘no such thing’ I become a complete imbecile when i’m pregnant. I can’t make decisions, cant’ remember anything, am not especially safe and i have absolutly zero motivation. I’ve had 6 pregnancies and each time as soon as the hormones kick in my brain cells start dying off at an alarming rate.It might not happen to everyone but it does happen to some.
Is ‘baby Brain’ Real
Putting keys in the fridge, forgetting Aunt Edna’s birthday, pouring juice on cereal They’re the kinds of thing you might hear of pregnant women doing sometimes called ‘baby brain’. But is it real?
To find out, researchers at Melbourne’s Deakin University looked at the results of 20 studies which examined cognitive function in 709 pregnant women and 521 non-pregnant women. Their meta-analysis has been published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
The studies we analysed showed general cognitive functioning, memory and executive functioning of pregnant women was significantly lower than in non-pregnant women particularly during the third trimester of pregnancy, says researcher Associate Professor Linda Byrne, a psychologist and neuroscientist in Deakin’s School of Psychology.
So that seems to confirm a lot of what we hear anecdotally where women say they start forgetting things during pregnancy they put the car keys in the fridge or miss appointments, she adds.
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When Does The Brain Stop Developing
Your babys brain will continue to mature throughout childhood with researchers estimating that the brain only stops developing around age 25!
During the first three to five years of your little ones life, the brain develops rapidly. By the age of 9, all of the major structures are in place.
That certainly doesnt mean brain development is done. The prefrontal lobe is the last area of the brain to develop, starting during the teen years. The prefrontal cortex plays an important role in what you might call adulting functions: goal-oriented decision making, memory encoding and retrieval, language and even intelligence. Until its fully developed, the amygdala tends to drive decision-making.
From the What to Expect editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, author of What to Expect When You’re Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected health organizations. Learn how we keep our content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy.
Baby Brain Development: Cognitive Development
Baby brain development technically begins during the third week of your pregnancy, when rapidly multiplying cells form whats called the neural plate. This structure eventually folds in on itself to become the neural tube, which later gives rise to the forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord. As early as five weeks after conception, neurons the information-processing cells that pass signals throughout the central nervous system begin to form, divide, and multiply in these regions of your developing babys brain.
The most active period of baby brain development takes place during the middle of the second trimester, when 250,000 neurons are created every minute. The neurons begin to migrate to different regions of your developing babys brain, where they take on specific roles, such as interpreting sounds and storing memories, and form connections with other neurons – leading up to the sixth month of pregnancy.
During this time of heightened baby brain development, the cerebral cortex the area associated with the brains higher functions, such as language and abstract thought grows more rapidly than the brains other structures. By the seventh month of your pregnancy, it houses 70 percent of the neurons in your developing babys brain.
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Chapter : Early Signs Of Pregnancy And Symptoms
As you can imagine, your body will start to change soon after conception. Some women notice early signs of pregnancy starting to appear sooner than others, and the timing could even differ from your first pregnancy to your second. Of course, the surest way to be certain if you are pregnant is to take a test.
This page will introduce the difference stages the future mother will be experience over the next nine months before she delivers her first child.
Changes In Gray Matter
Widespread changes in cognitive tasks and mood suggest that multiple areas of the brain are altered during pregnancy. One study found that pregnancy does indeed cause striking changes in the brain, so much so that researchers are able to tell if a someone has had a child simply by looking at a brain scan.
What exactly do these changes entail? One study found that gray matter actually shrinks in areas of the brain associated with processing and responding to social signals. The study’s lead author, Elseline Hoekzema, noted that this does not mean that “pregnancy makes you lose your brain.”
Instead, Hoekzema suggests, the loss of brain volume in these areas may indicate a process of maturation and specialization, allowing parents to become more focused and attuned to the needs of their infants. These alterations in gray matter volume endure for at least two years after childbirth, and they are linked to a stronger parent-child bond.
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S Of Your Babys Brain
Around week 5, your babys brain, spinal cord, and heart begin to develop. Your babys brain is part of the central nervous system, which also houses the spinal cord. There are three key components of a babys brain to consider. These include:
- Cerebrum: Thinking, remembering, and feeling occurs in this part of the brain.
- Cerebellum: This part of the brain is responsible for motor control, which allows the baby to move their arms and legs, among other things.
- Brain stem: Keeping the body alive is the primary role of the brain stem. This includes breathing, heartbeat, and blood pressure.
Do You Have Baby Brain
Are you getting a bit more forgetful? If you keep losing your keys, and then finding them in the fridge, then you could have what some people refer to as “baby brain”. This is not a medical condition, or scientifically proven, it’s just something that some pregnant women report. It is probably caused by tiredness and having lots of things on your mind.
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Pregnancy And Brain Shrinkage
Not all changes during pregnancy are visiblethe brain actually gets smaller in size due to a reduction of gray matter. But theres good news! A decrease in volume does not equate to a loss of function.
Gray matter affects social cognition, involving processing and responding to social signals, as well as the ability to exhibit empathy and create emotional attachments. While a shrinking brain may sound worrisome, a new study by Nature Neuroscience notes an increase in brain efficiency, enabling expectant mothers to interpret the needs and emotions of their babies, creating an instinctive maternal attachment and bond.
Lastly, dont forget that momnesia and pregnancy brain shrinkage wont last forever! The fog will lift and gray matter will return once your baby is born.
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Baby Brain Development: Motor Skills
Your child is equipped for physical survival. Even before birth, their brains and nerves are developed to the point that they can control basic reflexes and vital functions like breathing, swallowing, and sleeping. As you may have noticed, physical reflexes begin to develop during early pregnancy, when your developing baby becomes capable of reacting to stimuli by moving his arms and kicking his legs. This is fairly apparent during your babys rapid physical and mental development in the sixth month of pregnancy.
In the seventh month, a process called myelination begins in which a dense, fat-based substance forms along the connections between neurons, allowing signals to pass between them with increasing speed. Among the first neurons to undergo myelination are those located in the brain regions responsible for motor developmentthe brainstem and spinal cordand theyll be the most fully developed by then.
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An Overview Of Brain Anatomy
The easiest way to get to know the brain is to learn the main structures of the adult brain and how they relate to its function . It should be kept in mind that the relationship between brain structure and function is never simple. Although we often hear claims about the language area or emotion center of the brain, statements like these are simplifications in reality, even the simplest mental activities involve multiple brain regions.
The brain can be divided into three major parts. The brain stem, shaped like a widening stalk, connects the spinal cord to the upper brain. It controls reflexes and involuntary processes like breathing and heart rate. Behind the brain stem and below the upper brain is the cerebellum, which is involved in balance and coordination.
The cerebrum, the largest part of the brain, sits above the brain stem and cerebellum. While each of the brains structures plays an essential role, the cerebrum is the area most involved in higher processes like memory and learning. The cerebrums outer surface is called the cerebral cortex. Although less than one-fourth of an inch thick , it is where the brains most advanced activities such as planning and decision-making take place.
Source: Adapted by Bill Day from www.educarer.org, 2006.
What Does My Baby Look Like
Your baby, or foetus, is around 35.6cm long from head to heel, and weighs about 760g. That’s approximately the size of small marrow, and the weight of six large carrots.
Around now, your baby’s eyes will be opening for the first time and the next trick will be to learn how to blink. The eyes will probably be blue now, but that could easily change. It’s a myth that all babies are born with blue eyes â the colour will depend on the parents’ genetics, and brown is very common. You won’t know the permanent colour for a while, as they can keep on changing right into adulthood. However they will have probably settled on a colour by the time your baby’s three.
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Mommy Brain: Yes It’s A Thing
If you think delivering that gorgeous baby means an automatic return to your former mental self, think again. “Pregnancy brain” is real, and it can affect your postpartum brain as well. In fact, half of new moms still felt super sleepy 18 weeks after giving birth, according to a study published in PLOS One. Here’s what to expect.
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Is The Pregnant Brain Normal
If you are being forgetful during your pregnancy, it does not mean you are abnormal. Being forgetful is both completely normal and common to experience. Even if you try to multitask or try to stay organized, you will perhaps find yourself facing trouble in concentrating. Therefore, if you are feeling like not yourself, take a break and ask for help.
But hey, the good part as we mentioned is that it is temporary. So, as soon as you meet the little one, you will be able to be and feel like yourself. So, give yourself some time and do not overstress.
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