PERSONAL HEALTH : Confusion Usual in New Mothers
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New mothers who feel confused and forgetful aren’t imagining things. Memory problems are common for about 24 hours after delivery, according to Dr. Arthur I. Eidelman, professor of pediatrics at Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, who reported his research recently in Obstetrics & Gynecology.
He compared 100 new mothers with 74 other subjects, including non-pregnant childless women, pregnant women in their third trimester and men with newborns. Everyone took the same two tests to measure verbal recall, visual-spatial perception and memory.
On the first day after delivery, the new moms scored lower on both tests than the controls.
“Contrary to popular belief, anesthesia drugs are not the factor,” Eidelman says. Moms who did not receive painkillers during labor and delivery scored lower than those who did, he says.
The memory problems, Eidelman says, result from the stresses of childbirth, including exertion, fatigue, physiological changes and psychological responses. By the second or third day after delivery, memory returned to normal.
Based on the research, Eidelman says women should not be disturbed by such postpartum memory problems and recommends that any verbal information be supplemented with written instructions for at least a day after delivery.
