Ammon News - Pregnancy and early motherhood are often stereotyped as a time of forgetfulness, often referred to as “mom brain.”

But new research suggests that, in the long run, the same reproductive experiences linked to short-term mental fuzziness may be associated with sharper cognitive health decades later.

A study led by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) anthropology professor Molly Fox has found that pregnancy and breastfeeding are linked with stronger cognitive function in postmenopausal women.

Specifically, the team reports that greater cumulative time spent pregnant and breastfeeding correlates with better global cognition, as well as verbal and visual memory, later in life.

In their study, the researchers analyzed data from more than 7,000 women around age 70 who participated in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study and the Women’s Health Initiative Study of Cognitive Aging.

Participants underwent annual cognitive assessments for up to 13 years and completed detailed interviews about their reproductive histories.

Women are disproportionately affected by Alzheimer’s disease, a gap that cannot be fully explained by women’s longer average lifespans. Fox and her colleagues set out to explore whether reproductive history—an underexamined factor in brain aging—might help explain some of that difference.

Their findings supported their initial hypothesis. Women who had been pregnant for an average of 30.5 months had an expected 0.31 percent higher global cognition score than women who had never been pregnant. An average of 11.6 lifetime months of breastfeeding was associated with a 0.12 percent higher global cognition score, all else equal.

Each additional month of pregnancy was tied to a 0.01-point increase in overall cognitive ability. Each additional month of breastfeeding showed a similar gain, along with a 0.02-point boost in verbal and visual memory.

Though modest, these effect sizes are comparable to established protective factors such as not smoking and maintaining high physical activity.

Overall, women who had ever been pregnant scored 0.60 points higher in cognitive ability than those who had not, while women who had breastfed scored 0.19 points higher in cognition and 0.27 points higher in verbal memory than those who never did.

The researchers caution that biology may not be the only explanation. Having more adult children, for example, could bring stronger social support, lower stress or healthier behaviors, all of which can benefit brain health.

“If we can figure out, as a next step, why those reproductive patterns lead to better cognitive outcomes in old age, then we can work toward figuring out how to craft therapies—for example, new drugs, repurposed drugs or social programs—that mimic the naturally-occurring effect we observed,” Fox said.

The findings, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, point to pregnancy and breastfeeding as previously overlooked pieces of the cognitive aging puzzle—and open new avenues for research into women’s brain health across the lifespan.

Newsweek