Why Baby Brain is your Maternal Super Power
I first wrote about this in 2020, and while researching the dominant narrative around baby brain, I came across this headline from What to Expect:
“Didn't realize that feeling like a ditz was part of being pregnant? Here's why you've suddenly become an airhead, and what you can do about pregnancy brain.” (Dec.11, 2019)
Now in 2025 when I do a search for that particular article, I find an edited version by the same author - with a new caption:
“Didn't realize that forgetting things was part of being pregnant? Here's why your memory is a bit hazy these days and what you can do about ‘pregnancy brain.’“
Seems we’ve made some progress with the removal of words like ditz and airhead from the narrative (thankfully!), but the underlying messaging still lingers: baby brain is a weakness that we need to ‘fix’, or ‘do’ something about. But here’s the truth - there is nothing at all we need to ‘do’ about it other than embrace it, BE with it and celebrate it.
Yet that doesn’t come easily for most of us. With messaging like this, It’s no wonder we are self critical when our brains don’t perform up to society’s standards of productivity and efficiency. And in my opinion, the embarrassment and tendency to blame ‘baby brain’ stems from a deep, subconscious imprint of society’s long-standing devaluation of the Feminine. Let me explain my theory a little more.
Beyond childhood, we spend the majority of our lives in rapid beta brain wave states - navigating life through logic, rational thinking and linear planning. Our society prizes this ‘left-brained’ linear - aka masculine - mode above all else, and we have been programmed to believe that we are only of value when we are being productive.
This has been to the detriment of our more intuitive ‘right-brained’ - aka feminine - capacities. Left-brained analysis has overridden right-brained intuition and instinct, to a point where most of us have lost touch with this innate part of ourselves (and it is indeed innate, because even if we ‘lose touch’ with it, does not mean it disappears, it just becomes like a muscle you don’t use, it atrophies)
But while you are pregnant, during birth and into postpartum, your right-brained capacities naturally begin to come online. The physiology of your body changes, your hormones move through a dramatic shift, and new neural pathways that regulate nurturing and care-giving are formed. These hormonal changes also influence your brain wave states - pulling you out of a linear-processing beta state and into the slower, dream-like states of alpha, theta and delta.
Your brain literally IS changing, and your innate mother ‘muscle’ is being activated in preparation for birth and motherhood. This isn’t a flaw—it’s nature’s design. Your body is guiding you toward deeper presence - away from constant doing (masculine mode) and into being. Because birth and mothering aren’t intellectual processes. They are intuitive, instinctual, embodied and deeply feminine processes.
So the next time you misplace something, or lose your train of thought or track of time ~ simply pause. Instead of making a joke about baby brain - perhaps just close your eyes, breathe and BE. Feel into your body, and let go of trying to think your way through.
Remind yourself - this is your innate, maternal super power coming online ~ it’s a gift! An opportunity to reconnect with your intuition – which is your NUMBER ONE RESOURCE when it comes to birthing your baby and mothering your children (and really, to living your entire life). And this certainly is something to welcome and celebrate.
And in time, know that your left-brained capacities will indeed return. Yet the more you can allow your right-brained intuition and instinctual flow to guide you in these early days, the more you’ll naturally settle into a gentle balance between the two in the months and years that follow.
As for partners, caregivers, trusted family and friends - we are the ones who can DO something! We can hold the structure and take on beta-brained tasks so she can rely less on linear thinking. We can gently remind her of things when she forgets, while also celebrating her in forgetting! And we can hold space for her to safely soften into presence, and into the Feminine essence that pregnancy and motherhood brings.
Together we can rewrite this narrative—honoring and reclaiming the Feminine wisdom our world so deeply needs to heal, thrive, and return to wholeness.
(*Side note : When I speak about ‘masculine and feminine energies’ I am not referring to ‘men’ and ‘women’. I am referring to 2 ‘opposing’, yet complimentary energies that make up the fabric of our entire existence. And unfortunately rather than co-existing in harmonious interplay, one has dominated the other for far too long - which has contributed to so much of the imbalance we see in the world today. Restoring this balance has been a large part of my life’s mission, and my motivation for doing the work I do)
Author:
Andrea St. Jules
Andréa is a birth and postpartum doula, women’s empowerment advocate, and Yoga Nidrā facilitator dedicated to nurturing the new paradigm of sovereign birth and sacred postpartum care. Her work with Earth Blossom Birth is rooted in Feminine wisdom, grounded in Nature, and founded on 20+ years of holistic living and ceremonial practice. As a long time yoga teacher, she now specializes in pre- and postnatal Yoga Nidrā, offering calming, restorative meditations for birth preparation and postpartum healing. She is based on Prince Edward Island (Epekwitk), Canada, where she provides heart-led, holistic support to mothers and families, and finds harmony in the rhythms of the natural world.
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