Well, according to this article, maybe she doesn't relax...
Maybe she just learns to deal with stress better.
http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/article/77/90343.htm
Superwoman's Secret Identity: Mom
Having, Raising Kids Gives Mothers New Powers
By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Friday, November 14, 2003
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Nov. 14, 2003 -- Something about being a mother triggers dramatic, permanent changes in behavior -- and in the brain.
Those changes give a normal female super powers, a spate of studies show. Some of these powers -- such as faster wound healing -- disappear soon after giving birth. Others, such as special resistance to stress, may be lifelong changes.
Supermom
What happens to a female when she transforms into a mother? The question is up close and personal for Craig H. Kinsley, PhD, chair of the psychology department at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
"What got me thinking about this was watching the changes in my wife Nancy," Kinsley tells WebMD. "When we were talking about having children, she was kind of ambivalent. When she got pregnant and had our first daughter, the transition was amazing. She became a supermom. The change was fantastic. It wasn't books she read. It was some biological change. The brain is inundated by hormones during pregnancy and caring for the young, and that results in these changes."
Kinsley's lab is equipped to study rat brains. He set up a series of experiments to look at brain changes in animals exposed, at various stages of their lives, to various environments and stresses.
Female rats' senses become vastly more acute after they give birth, he found. At the same time, the animals get another power -- the ability to deal with and function under stress.
"I think that whether talking about rats or humans, in both cases the females are faced with questions of what they do to care for their young," Kinsley says. "In a sense, nature is giving a boost to the female's part of the problem. It is changing the brain to make her more able to do what she has to."
"And here is a piece of this nobody is talking about: All the changes pregnancy is doing to a mother's brain are to prepare her for sensory information coming from the offspring," Kinsley says. "Pups are a rich source of sensory information to the mom. In a way, they are feeding the mother's brain to help her to care for them."
Kinsley's rat study appears in a recent issue of Physiology & Behavior. He reported newer data at this week's meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Also presenting at the Society for Neuroscience was Tracey Shors, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Shors' is seeing the same kinds of things in her rat studies.
"When you become a mother, everything changes," Shors tells WebMD. "You have to focus on new priorities -- a focus on the children. We take better care of ourselves, too, but mostly so we can take care of them."
Shors research team found that while stress usually keeps female rats from learning new things, females nursing their young had unusual stress resistance.
In other presentations to the Society for Neuroscience meeting:
Daniel Broman of Ulmea University, Sweden, reported that pregnant women have a heightened sense of smell.
Craig Ferris, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts found that female rats would rather suckle their young than take cocaine. The finding suggests that pregnancy changes in the female brain lead to changes that make suckling a positive experience.
A. Courtney DeVries, PhD, and Tara Craft of Ohio State University reported that lactating mice have faster wound healing.
A New Developmental Stage
These changes, Kinsley says, are nearly as dramatic as those seen during puberty.
"What we are talking about is another developmental period," he suggests. "When people think development they think prenatal, postnatal, and puberty. What our work is showing is that when a female becomes pregnant, her brain is changing dramatically. This is an important developmental period in her life."
In a message dated 11/17/2003 7:11:27 AM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes:
> I do not believe for a minute it
> has anything to do with *now the mother finally relaxed
> after trying too
> hard."
Laura Wright,
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