After nine months of pregnancy, project manager Alina Tooley is getting ready for the imminent arrival of her first child.
The usually sharp-witted 42-year-old said has her mind had been working in 'strange ways' since falling pregnant.
Ms Tooley said she’s found herself “putting the margarine in the cupboard, losing my keys and leaving my bag in strange places."
"I left my wallet on the ground at a shop and drove off – I went back and luckily someone had handed it into the shop – really random things that I never would have normally done," she said.
“Once the baby arrives I am hoping my memory comes back to normal and I don't leave the baby somewhere strange!”
It's a mental fog that's familiar to many expectant mothers during the last days of their pregnancy.
'I would forget where I parked my car'
Similarly, Miki Piggott - mother to 15-month-old Sienna and with a second child on the way - also recalls bouts of uncharacteristic memory loss.
"Forgetting appointments, mainly hairdressing appointments, or I would forget where I parked my car on the road. I might lose my car keys or lose the remote control.
"A lot of us, my friends who have had babies, will say we are still suffering from baby brain over silly things we do – it's always good to have an excuse and blame baby brain."
A study of pregnant women reveals they get more prone to forgetfulness as their delivery date approaches, often experiencing vagueness and brain fades.
'Baby brain' does indeed exist and particularly affects women during the third trimester of pregnancy, Australian researchers have found. Source: Press Association
'Flooded with hormones'
Deakin University's Linda Byrne and her colleagues studied the cognitive abilities of more than 700 mothers-to-be and 500 non-pregnant women.
"There was a real, measurable difference between the performance of non-pregnant women and pregnant women, particularly in the area of memory. So we found that pregnant women were actually performing at a lower level than non-pregnant women," Ms Byrne told SBS.
She said the mental fog was particularly evident in the third trimester of gestation.
“We think that it is probably a number of things. Certainly, during pregnancy, the body and the brain are flooded with hormones. We have oestrogen, progesterone, oxytocin ... all of these things are going to have an impact on our brain function."
Tracking neurological function
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has welcomed the study but said the big question is whether the lack of mental sharpness is merely a reflection of pregnant mothers' fatigue and distraction.
Researchers concede there's more work to be done to explain the baby brain phenomenon and are currently recruiting for a new study that will track the neurological function of women before and during pregnancy, as well as six months after, to assess whether the cognitive change goes on over time.
