Postpartum University® Podcast

The Postpartum "Mom" Brain: Understanding & Supporting The Rewiring Process EP 224

• Maranda Bower, Postpartum Nutrition Specialist

Share episode

Send us a text

Ever wonder why your postpartum clients feel like they're in a fog, forgetful, or just plain different? 

It's not just "mom brain" as we know it. In this eye-opening episode, we’re completely shifting the conventional understanding of the postpartum brain and diving deep into the profound neurological rewiring that happens after birth. Forget surface-level fixes; we're talking about real, lasting solutions for postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, and maternal burnout by understanding the biological brilliance behind a mother's transformation. This isn't about "fixing" women; it's about seeing their bodies and brains with the reverence they deserve, and equipping postpartum providers with the holistic care practices to truly heal their clients at the root.

Check out this episode on the blog HERE. 

Key time stamps: 

  • 0:48: Postpartum brain is rewiring, not broken. 
  • 3:23: What happens to the brain in postpartum? Neurological transformation explained. 
  • 4:25: Increased diligence, heightened emotional sensitivity, disrupted memory & focus, decreased self-prioritization.
  • 5:30: Biologically appropriate functions without proper support lead to burnout, anxiety, rage.
  •  6:46: The role of stress in brain rewiring – adaptive vs. chronic. Chronic stress creates maladaptive programming. 
  • 10:40: Mom brains prioritize survival and baby's needs, not broken. 
  • 11:29: Oxytocin strengthens memory of emotionally charged events. 
  • 12:24: Understanding intrusive thoughts: protection, not pathology. 
  • 15:28: How to support postpartum brain recovery: nutrition, nervous system regulation, repletion. 
  • 16:05: Why holistic approaches are crucial and why single strategies fail. 
  • 17:44: Body-based trauma release techniques like TRE therapy. 
  • 18:11: The importance of safe co-regulating relationships. 
  • 19:59: Consistent nutritional repletion is biochemical reality.
  •  20:25: Sleep rhythm and restoration for active brain repair. 
  • 24:08: Reclaim mom brain: it's a superpower, not a problem. Postpartum rewiring makes mothers more intuitive, protective, efficient. 

NEXT STEPS:

🎒Download the free Postpartum Restoration Method™ Assessment Tool & Guide for Providers
📩 Join our newsletter for more evidence-based insights and strategies
🔔Sign up for the Postpartum Nutrition Certification Waitlist

👍Rate, REVIEW & share the podcast
📱Connect on Instagram!
📚Get a Copy of the BOOK: Reclaiming Postpartum Wellness
🧠Perinatal Mental Health Certificate Training & Additional Courses for Providers & Postpartum Professionals

Speaker 1:

The postpartum care system is failing, leaving countless mothers struggling with depression, anxiety and autoimmune conditions. I'm Miranda Bauer and I've helped thousands of providers use holistic care practices to heal their clients at the root. Subscribe now and join us in addressing what modern medicine overlooks, so that you can give your clients real, lasting solutions for lifelong wellbeing. Hey, hey, welcome back to the podcast, miranda Bauer, here with Postpartum University and today we are diving into something radically transformative, something I believe is at the core of revolutionizing postpartum care.

Speaker 1:

Let's begin with a truth that doesn't get said enough Postpartum brain is not broken. It's literally rewiring, and yet we treat it like it's malfunctioning. We label mothers as overwhelmed, hormonal or even emotionally unstable, and we offer surface level support or stop a diagnosis on what is actually a sacred neurological transformation, and we forget that everything she's thinking, feeling and struggling through makes sense when you understand what's happening biologically and neurologically. And I first started seeing this pattern years ago. I experienced it myself as a mom. And then mothers in my practice were saying I don't feel like myself, I can't think clearly, I snap so easy. This isn't me, or I feel like I'm always in fight or flight, and I thought this isn't just my own personal emotional struggle as a mom of four, having gone through this. This is a neuroplasticity misfiring. This is a nervous system that's stuck in overdrive. This is a rewiring process that no one is supporting, and I shared some of this recently in our postpartum provider press newsletter and the response was overwhelming. Providers wrote in saying this is finally explaining what I have been seeing. Moms replied saying thank. This is finally explaining what I have been seeing. Moms replied saying thank you for validating what I have been feeling for years but could not articulate. And that's why we are here today having this conversation.

Speaker 1:

This episode is for the providers who want to understand what's really happening in the postpartum brain. It's for the mothers who've been told you're just tired, when what they're experiencing is a total neurological shift. And let's be honest, we know this shift occurs. Right, we call it mom brain. Everybody knows mom brain, right? But let's actually go deeper. Let's get further into this conversation.

Speaker 1:

What is mom brain? And I want to be really clear. This is not about fixing women. This is about finally seeing what their bodies and brains are doing and supporting it with reverence. All right, let's begin.

Speaker 1:

So what happens to the brain in postpartum? If you've ever heard a mom say I don't recognize myself anymore. Or you know, hey, I just got mom brain right. She's not being dramatic. She's describing an actual neurological transformation, transformation, the postpartum brain changes in structure, function and chemistry. And we're not talking about slight hormonal fluctuations, we're talking about full-on neurological rewiring. In fact, research using MRIs have shown that mother's brains physically shrinks in some areas, particularly the prefrontal cortex and the areas responsible for social cognition, and it's to make room for an increased ability to bond, protect and attune to her baby's needs. And these changes drum roll please. They last for years.

Speaker 1:

So what this means is that we have an increased diligence. So moms are more aware of danger read anxious and hyper alert. They have heightened emotional sensitivity, so mom might cry more easily, feel more deeply at everything. Have you ever watched a commercial where something just happens and it's like a regular commercial, but you find yourself bawling your eyes out because you're just feeling things so much more intensely, more deeply, disrupted memory and focus right. And that's where mom brain came in, where we just forgot where we put the keys. Or we're in the middle of a conversation and we forget what we were saying immediately right, like in the middle of a sentence or we can't find the words to go with what we are saying Decreased self-prioritization, like her brain is rewiring for her baby and for her baby over herself.

Speaker 1:

So oftentimes we tell moms that, oh, they need self-care, you've got to get out, you've got to do things for you, put yourself first. All of that might be true and absolutely necessary, but that's not what her brain is telling her to do, right, and all of this is biologically appropriate. It's designed for survival, but without proper support, it becomes burnout, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, rage and eventually collapse. Thoughts, rage and eventually collapse. This is not dysfunction. It's function without foundation, because what's happening in the brain is a beautiful, brilliant revolution, but it's demanding resources, nutrients, rest, connection, calm that our current system does not give her. And so when the very system designed to help her thrive becomes a step for breakdown, we've got questions, we got problems. How do we support this rewiring process instead of ignoring it and misdiagnosing it?

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about stress, the role of stress and rewiring, and I want to be clear in this too, that stress in postpartum is not inherently bad. Stress is a biological response designed to help us adapt. In the postpartum period, a mother's brain is actively restructuring neural pathways to create a new identity, to reprioritize attention and ensure her survival and the survival of her baby. But here's the catch there's a difference between adaptive stress and chronic, unresolved stress. Adaptive stress promotes resilience, rewiring growth. Chronic stress hijacks the nervous system, impairs healing and rewires the brain for fear.

Speaker 1:

And when a mother is sleep, deprived, nutrient depleted, alone, isolated, emotionally unsupported, navigating unresolved trauma and traumatic birth, living in an overstimulated, undernourished culture, the brain shifts from adaptive rewiring to maladaptive programming. And this is where we start to see persistent brain fog, mood instability, increased risk of postpartum anxiety or depression, disconnection from self and others, decision fatigue, rage, emotional reactivity and, worst of all, this becomes the new default. The postpartum brain locks in whatever environment it's exposed to and if that environment is stressed, dysregulation being unsupported, it becomes the blueprint for her whole entire motherhood experience and carries throughout her entire life. But here's the most important takeaway the brain is plastic, okay, meaning not like plastic, as in like your water bottle or you know bad dishes, right, it can heal Plastic, meaning that it transforms, it can move, it can rewire again. And this is where we as providers come in right. So I wanna add some really incredible mom brain science to here before we come in and talk about what we can do about this. So we have the structural brain changes that are long-term, even permanent.

Speaker 1:

There was a study in 2016 published by Nature Neuroscience that found that gray matter volume decreases in specific brain regions during postpartum, but not in a bad way. Right. These reductions are linked to increased efficiency in the maternal brain, especially in areas tied to social cognition, empathy and decision-making. And the brain is becoming more specialized, not less capable More specialized, not less capable. So the maternal brain is designed for attachment brain and imaging shows that when a mother sees her baby's face or hears her baby cry, certain areas of the brain light up, especially the amygdala, prefrontal cortex and reward centers. So this rewiring creates a biological drive toward protection, empathy and bonding and explains why so many mothers feel on edge, hyper alert or like they just can't relax. This is not anxiety, this is a biology. Until it becomes dysregulated by depletion or lack of support, your brain literally reorganizes and prioritizes other things.

Speaker 1:

So research shows that mom brains help moms tune out irrelevant information and focus intensely on the baby and the environment, and this is why you might forget your own birthday, but you know your baby's poop schedule for the hour right, or you know exactly what happened for your baby and when, and this is adaptive behavior. The brain is prioritizing survival. It's not broken, it's laser focused. And then we also have oxytocin, which strengthens memory tied to emotional connection. Oxytocin, which strengthens memory tied to emotional connection, so oxytocin, also called the love hormone, is high during breastfeeding and bonding moments, and this hormone helps strengthen memory circuits related to emotional learning and meaning meaning.

Speaker 1:

Moms tend to remember emotionally charged events more vividly, both positive and traumatic, and that's why birth traumatic or emotionally heightened postpartum experiences are often very deeply embedded. It's something that a mother never forgets. You always hear that right. A mom will never forget how she's cared for in postpartum. This right here. This is why Mom brain also makes you a better problem solver. So studies show that postpartum women score higher on tests of emotional intelligence and multitasking and creative problem solving compared to non-mothers, even with little sleep, like it is due to enhanced connectivity in the default mode network of the brain. So the brain system links to self-reflection and empathy and planning and all of that juicy fun stuff.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and I want to take a sidestep here and talk about intrusive thoughts for a moment. This is something that we absolutely need to talk about because it's so tied to the brain changes. Up to 80% of postpartum women experience intrusive thoughts, and yet no one talks about why they're actually happening and what that means. We instead typically relate it to depression or anxiety, and we need to clear this up, relate it to depression or anxiety, and we need to clear this up. Intrusive thoughts are not a sign of insanity or mood disorder. They are a sign of a brain doing exactly what it's wired to do, which is protect.

Speaker 1:

In the postpartum period, a mother's brain is hyper attuned to threat. This is again, not by a broken biology, it is primal biology big difference. So her brain is scanning for danger. And when there's chronic stress in the system lack of sleep, nutrient depletion, depletion, trauma, dysregulation the brain can't filter and signal from all of that noise. So it overfires, it overwarns, it plays out worst case scenarios on repeat. So what if I drop the baby down the stairs? What if I fall asleep and something happens? What if I lose control? What if I get in this vehicle and it crashes right? These are all automatic, unwanted, terrifying thoughts and so many of us experience it. This is like a real human, emotional, mother-like thing that happens. And here's the kicker the moment a mother has that thought, it oftentimes creates shame and fear and a more stressed response. And that response, that stress response, fuels the stress loop which amplifies the very rewiring that created the thought in the first place. So the cycle deepens intrusive thought, fear, shame, stress, stress, more intrusive thoughts.

Speaker 1:

And here's the truth. Providers need to know this is not pathological unless it impairs function. Right, that's a whole nother conversation. This is not something to medicate right away without understanding the root. What mothers need is validation. You're not alone in this, you are not education. Your brain is trying to protect you and it's on high alert. It's trying to protect your baby. It's a biological normal. And then we also need to know regulation tools to help calm the nervous system and create a new pathway of safety. When we can explain what's happening and offer tools that calm and rewire, we stop the spiral before it cements into something traumatic or mental health issues.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so what do we do? How do we support postpartum brain recovery and where do we go from here? You cannot quote, unquote, fix rewiring brain with surface level advice. Most programs, whether they're therapy or nutrition or postpartum recovery, miss this entirely. They focus on isolated strategies like sleep when baby sleeps, take this one supplement, try this medication right, and while those things can help, they don't address the foundational rewiring that's happening in the postpartum brain.

Speaker 1:

So we have to break this down and what this looks like. So first, nutrition is first and foremost. You cannot create a calm nervous system if your body is in a state of absolute depletion, because when you're in a state of depletion, your body is sending out warning signs saying I can't function well and your nervous system cannot function without the nutrients that are required to run it first and foremost. Second is nervous system regulation. Second is nervous system regulation after nutrition. We must calm the system, and usually this is something that goes hand in hand, because if your nervous system is not calm, you're not digesting your foods well and vice versa. Right, and it's. It's such a catch-22. So I always recommend, like these things have to be done together. That that's why oftentimes, like if somebody focuses on one area of healing and not the other, then everything kind of crumbles or doesn't feel like it works, because they all are necessary together. Healing takes time. It doesn't operate in a vacuum in each of these pieces. So nervous system regulation comes with eating well and they go hand in hand. The brain cannot rewire for safety when it's in survival mode, right, and so regulation for the nervous system might look like eating well, vagal toning, breath work, and not just deep breathing but intentional patterned breath.

Speaker 1:

Body-based trauma release techniques. I love TRE therapy I talk about it in my book and show you exactly how to do it. And reclaiming postpartum wellness. If you don't have my book, go to Amazon. Type in reclaiming postpartum wellness, add it to your cart, get it. It is amazing, and I talk about these very techniques and show you exactly how to use them in there.

Speaker 1:

And then, of course, safe co-regulating relationships. We often miss this piece, but if we're not feeling safe in our home, with our relationships, with our partners, if we're always feeling on edge, then we're not going to ever feel good in our bodies. Okay, and this is not just speaking to those who might have abusive relationships or very difficult relationships, I'm just talking about in general like someone you love, you're married to it's not an abusive relationship, but you feel like you're walking on eggshells. Maybe you're both sleep deprived, like you both need this kind of support, and nobody's going to get regulated and feel good and feel safe within the body. If we're not safe in our home? Okay, then we also need to have consistent nutritional repletion, right? I already mentioned this omega-3s, b vitamins, iron and magnesium protein daily, because those amino acids they build neurotransmitters. It's not optional, this is not optional stuff, this is biochemical reality.

Speaker 1:

Without repletion, the brain simply cannot function at full capacity. And then, of course, we have sleep Rhythm and restoration. The postpartum brain is incredibly sensitive to circadian rhythm. That doesn't mean that you need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, right? This is where we laugh, ha ha ha, lol. But it does mean creating consistent sleep cues like darkness, quiet, calm before bed, no phones, catching sleep early in the night so that the brain cleanses itself during this time. Supporting naps, co-sleeping setups, partner support. And sleep is not just rest, it's like active brain repair. And then there's gentle cognitive rebuilding, instead of bypassing symptoms with positive thinking, which does make a difference. Okay, let's, let's just talk about that for a second. Positive thinking does make a huge difference, but it doesn't mean ignoring the realities, right?

Speaker 1:

We need moms to be able to name her feelings, refrain fear as protection. Sometimes it's a matter, and I used to tell moms this all the time when I was coaching, and I did this myself as a mother who had intrusive thoughts, as we, so many of us do. Right, I had to tell my brain that it's okay, that my body is working really good, my brain is working so hard to protect my baby, and that this is just a message that says, hey, there's danger and there is right, there's danger walking down the steps, just as there's danger getting into a vehicle. All of those have moments and your brain is recognizing those moments. Just living right Can be dangerous sometimes and our brains recognize it, our bodies recognize it. So I'd be like, oh, thank you, thank you for that information. I understand that this might be a dangerous situation and I also trust that I'm going to be perfectly safe. And amazingly, it had such a profound effect. And I see it with my clients too. They understand that refrain and it feels really good to them.

Speaker 1:

Practice pattern interruption with compassion. This is one of the things that we do. It's refraining fear as protection and then interrupting that pattern with love and compassion rather than fear. And oh my gosh, I can't believe. I just thought that ugly thought. And what am I and who am I? This is terrible and I don't wanna think this.

Speaker 1:

And then you get yourself thrown into a spiral and anchor into real life wins okay, not affirmations that feel fake, but just like I woke up this morning and I grabbed a cup of coffee and I was able to take a few sips while it was still warm. That is incredible, right? Just recognize those little moments of like I got dressed today or I, you know, I took a shower or I got to shave my armpits. Like I don't care, whatever it is, that feels good. It just picks something small that feels good, like those were the things that felt good for me in the moment. Or like I got to, you know, sleep in an extra 15 minutes, whatever it is. Just pick something tiny that you could go on that says, ah, I did, I had a win, right, I had a win and it doesn't need to feel big, right, we just need little tools that help her meet her brain where it is and transition and defense and growth, and stop treating postpartum like it's a checklist to bounce back from right. The postpartum brain is being rebuilt from the ground up and then we need to treat it like sacred living architecture that gives its and then and then here we are giving it the materials that actually needs to grow during this time.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we've got to reclaim that mom brain. It is a superpower, not a problem, right? We all have heard it the mom brain, and usually it's said with frustration or embarrassment or shame, like we've been, you know, forgetful and scattered or somehow broken and we don't have it all together. But what if being in a place of having mom brain is where it's all at, where we are actually recognizing that we are one of the most powerful evolutionary upgrades and our experiences are about to skyrocket? Because the truth is, the maternal brain changes more after birth than at any other time in a woman's life, even more than puberty. Okay, put that in your pocket for a second.

Speaker 1:

This rewiring doesn't make us weaker. It makes us more intuitive, more emotionally attuned, more protective, more community-minded, more efficient with decision-making skills and, in fact, the postpartum brain prunes what's unnecessary and strengthens neural pathways that prioritize survival, attachment and problem solving. So the mom brain is not the problem, it's the system that fails to support the transformation. We call it forgetfulness, but really it's hyper-focused on the things that matter most the baby's needs, your safety, the rhythms of the home, the emotional temperature of your family. The rhythms of the home, the emotional temperature of your family. If you feel like you have changed after having a baby, it's because you literally have your brain is working differently, not worse, just different, deeper, wiser, and this is what we all go through as moms.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I will leave you with this let's not pathologize a transformation. Stop apologizing for your postpartum brain. Stop labeling the symptoms without addressing the roots. If you're listening into this, y'all don't do this. I understand, and we have to share this with others so that they know not to do this too. We have a new standard now, and that standard is supporting, nourishing, regulating and doing all of this with reverence. And as providers, it's our job to be the guides who help mothers reclaim this rite of passage, not provide just a diagnosis. This rite of passage, not provide just a diagnosis.

Speaker 1:

If you loved this episode and want to go deeper into the science and support and strategies that actually help moms recover and mental health and all the things postpartum, join us and over 10,000 providers inside our weekly newsletter, inside our weekly newsletter, the Postpartum Provider Press, go to postpartumu, the letter, ucom, slash press and get the clinical tools and the truth bombs and all of the science and links to all of that and we deliver that every Wednesday.

Speaker 1:

Let's rewire the way we care for postpartum one brain at a time. Thanks for being here. Postpartum one brain at a time. Thanks for being here. Thanks so much for being a part of this crucial conversation. I know you're dedicated to advancing postpartum care and if you're ready to dig deeper, come and join us on our newsletter, where I share exclusive insights, resources and the latest tools to help you make a lasting impact on postpartum health. Sign up at postpartumu the letter ucom which is in the show notes, and if you found today's episode valuable, please leave a review to help us reach more providers like you. Together, we're building a future where mothers are fully supported and thriving.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Maranda Bower

Host