Synopses & Reviews
1. Perception. A mother's sensory-rich life with her newborn actually remaps part of her brain improving her ability to interpret new information.
2. Efficiency. Pregnancy and early motherhood enrich the brain, improving memory and setting a mother up for a lifetime of multitasking.
3. Resilience. Oxytocin, a powerful hormone abundant in mothers, so effectively combats stress, clearing the way for improved learning, that scientists are studying its, potential as an anti-depressant and even as a therapy for Alzheimer's.
4. Motivation. The fierce biological urge to defend their children, bolstered by mind-altering hormones, helps mothers become more creative and competitive.
5. Emotional Intelligence. Mothers get basic training in this important kind of smarts as they tone their brain's empathy muscles by instinctively imitating their babies' facial expressions.
Review
"Ellison has done her homework, citing legitimate social and neurological research to back up her conclusions." Library Journal
Synopsis
Generations of mothers have been told -- and believed -- that having a baby means checking their own brains at the delivery room door. "The Mommy Brain" usually refers to a head full of feeding times, soccer schedules, and nursery rhymes, at the expense of creative or challenging ideas. But recent scientific research paints a dramatically different and far rosier picture. Journalist Katherine Ellison draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to demonstrate that, contrary to long-established wisdom that having children dumbs you down, raising children may make moms smarter . From enhanced senses in pregnancy and early motherhood to the alertness and memory skills necessary to manage like a pro, to a greater aptitude for risk-taking and a talent for empathy and negotiation, these advantages not only help mothers in raising their children, but in their work and social lives as well. Filled with lively (and often hilarious) stories of multitasking moms at home and on the job, The Mommy Brain encourages all of us to cast aside conventional thinking and discover the positive ways in which having children changes mothers' brains for the better.
Synopsis
In The Mommy Brain, Katherine Ellison reveals the ways that women get smarter after having kids. Motherhood makes women more perceptive, efficient, resilient, motivated, and emotionally intelligent -- all of which adds up to tremendous mental enrichment and effectiveness.
Synopsis
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist delivers good news by imploding the myth of the dumbed-down mom, and offers startling scientific evidence that motherhood gives women unexpected mental advantages.
About the Author
Katherine Ellison is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter veteran foreign correspondent, and author of two books: Imelda: Steel Butterfly of the Philippines and The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Possible (co-authored with Gretchen Daily). A working mother of two young boys, she has written on this topic for Salon and Working Mother magazine. She lives in San Anselmo, California.