Topic > How pregnancy affects memory and attention

About two-thirds of women who are pregnant or have recently given birth suggest some degree of cognitive deficits, such as in attention and prevalent memory, during pregnancy (Brett & Baxendale, 2001). This report will investigate the scientific evidence on the effects of pregnancy on memory, to examine whether such deficits actually exist or are just anecdotal reports. This report will consider both objective and subjective evidence as research on the topic mainly refers to the approach of these two categories. Therefore, the report aims to help pregnant women improve their knowledge and understand whether such evidence exists and how it affects the cognition and memory of pregnant women.(50) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Women often report that memory is negatively affected by pregnancy (Brett & Baxendale, 2001), and since more than two-thirds of women experience pregnancy at least once it is important to understand whether objective deficits underlie the complaints subjective. Therefore, it is substantial to distinguish and understand the differences between subjective and objective memory impairment during pregnancy, as the investigation on this topic mainly falls into these two categories. Subjective memory disorders are those reported by women based on everyday situations such as forgetfulness; many subjective reports involve memory deficits (Brindle, Brown, Brown, Griffith & Turner, 1991). Furthermore, objective memory impairments are those found in a well-controlled environment or in a laboratory where experimental conditions are controlled (Brindle et al., 1991). Although there are a number of studies examining memory and cognitive deficits during pregnancy and postpartum (Niven & Brodie, 1996), the lack of studies has investigated these deficits in memory abilities by examining the relationship between subjective memory complaints and objective measures of cognitive function (Keenan et al., 1998). Recently, a study distinguished pregnant from non-pregnant women in a series of daily life setting tests (subjective approach) and well-controlled laboratory tests (objective approach). The results of this investigation confirm that pregnancy is significantly related to problems in daily life. However, none of the objective laboratory tests reveal a connection between pregnancy and memory disorders (Cettler et al., 2011). Therefore, the findings support that women during pregnancy demonstrate memory deficits in daily living environments when women have conflicting attentional demands, but in a laboratory setting where extraneous variables such as distractions are controlled, such impairments do not they exist. As previously mentioned, approximately 50 to 80 percent of women often report having some degree of cognitive and memory problems that they attribute to pregnancy. There is a considerable number of subjective studies indicating memory disorders related to pregnancy. In a naturalistic study of the effects of pregnancy on memory (Jarrahi-Zaden et al., 1969). The findings indicate that 12 percent of pregnant women report having "brain fog" during the pregnancy period. However, the accusation of such clouding increased to 16% after giving birth. Furthermore, subsequent findings by Poser et al. (1986) reveal that more than 80% of pregnant women in their sample report increased forgetfulness during pregnancy, with 38% of the sample suggesting that forgetfulness was the only symptom experienced during the pregnancy period. In one., 1999).