This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
When well-meaning people tell expectant moms that “motherhood changes you,” they may be more right than they know. A new study by brain scientists in the Netherlands suggests that a mother’s brain undergoes distinct changes after having a second child that seem to help her adapt to caring for her growing family.
A decade ago, a related study found that women’s brains lose gray matter after having a first child, and the changes last for years — something researcher Elseline Hoekzema referred to as “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/22/health/pregnancy-brain-changes/index.html">synaptic pruning</a>.” Second-time mothers’ brains appear to be “more strongly altered in networks involved in reacting to sensory cues and in controlling your attention,” researcher Milou Straathof <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-pregnancy-uniquely-female-brain.html">said</a> of the recent study.
The new study, detailed in an <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69370-8">article</a> published in February, found that the changes were distinct enough that “women could significantly be classified as having undergone a first or a second pregnancy based solely on their brain changes between sessions.” X user Anish Moonka <a href="https://x.com/anishmoonka/status/2049010221847310400">shared</a> a synopsis of the study ahead of Mother’s Day, causing many moms to comment that they were thankful to know their so-called mom brain moments, though frustrating, had an underlying purpose.
“It&#8217;s incredibly important to study how pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting affect the brains of women (and men, too). The majority of adults become parents at some point in their lifespan, but there are still major gaps in our understanding of how the transition to parenthood affects our neurobiology, cognition, health, and brain aging,” psychologist and professor Darby Saxbe, author of the forthcoming book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dad-Brain-Science-Fatherhood-Shapes/dp/1250387523">Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men&#8217;s Lives</a>,&#8221; told The Daily Wire in a statement. Saxbe is listed as a peer reviewer of the 2026 article.
The 2026 study involved 110 women who underwent MRI brain scans to examine data points such as gray matter volume, resting-state brain activity, and white matter tract organization. The women were divided into three groups: women pregnant with their first child, women pregnant with their second child, and a control group of women who were not pregnant.
Psychologist and licensed behavior analyst Lauren Mahoney, who teaches at the City University of New York, told The Daily Wire that the research tracks with her personal experience as a mother.
“After my first child, the shift felt internal. My attention narrowed in a way that almost felt protective,” Mahoney said. “I remember thinking how strange it was that I could pick up on the smallest cues but at the same time forget something as simple as why I walked into a room.”
“After my second child, the shift was entirely different,” she continued. “I had a very clear moment where I thought, ‘My brain doesn’t get to stay in one place anymore.’”
The concept of matrescence, the process of becoming a mother, is important for women to be aware of, experts told The Daily Wire. Many people describe it as the process of transforming from maiden to mother. 
“Another important piece of the research is that the most significant changes in first-time mothers occur in the default mode network, which is heavily involved in self-referential thinking and understanding other people’s thoughts and emotions,” Mahoney said. “That helps explain why first-time mothers often describe such a profound identity shift. They are not just caring for a child. Their brain is actively reorganizing how they understand themselves in relation to another human being. By the second pregnancy, that system has already adapted. So instead of restructuring identity again, the brain appears to refine and build capacity for managing complexity. That is where the shift toward attention and action systems becomes so important.”
The findings of the study weren’t a total surprise for researchers who have conducted similar studies with animals and had similar findings, said neuroscientist <a href="https://www.jodipawluski.com/">Jodi Pawluski</a>, author of the book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mommy-Brain-Discover-amazing-maternal/dp/1772584878">Mommy Brain</a>.&#8221; Pawluski said the new study may point out the obvious (or at least what is obvious to experts) — that a second-time mom experiences changes in neural networks related to attention, sensory, and motor pathways — but it’s still very important research to build on.
“The majority of the research we have on the maternal brain has focused on how becoming a mother for the first time is related to changes in the brain,” Pawluski told The Daily Wire in a statement. “However, the majority of mothers have more than one child, so understanding how the second (or third, or fourth) time impacts a mother&#8217;s brain is incredibly important to ensure we are doing all that we can to support mothers and families.”
The authors of the new study were also interested in how these brain changes correlate with mother-baby bonding and peripartum mood. The article states that for both groups of pregnant women, less pronounced brain changes were linked to depression.
Many people underestimate the amazing nature of the mother-baby connection, Dr. Kristin M. Collier, associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, told The Daily Wire, <a href="https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/a-relational-theology-of-biology/">citing research</a> that shows that a mother’s voice can affect her child’s brain structure, can influence her baby’s heart rate, and is likely a key factor in her child’s development of language.
The new study could contain meaningful information for moms going about their everyday lives, Mahoney said. Most importantly, she wants moms to give themselves grace when they feel like they no longer function the way they did before having children.
“The difficulty focusing, the constant mental switching, [and] the feeling of being cognitively stretched are often interpreted as personal shortcomings, when in reality they reflect a brain that has adapted to manage complexity and unpredictability,” she said. “When women understand this, there is often an immediate shift from self-criticism to self-compassion. They begin to work with their brain instead of against it. That might look like structuring tasks differently, allowing for more flexible attention, or recognizing that efficiency now looks like responsiveness rather than sustained focus.”
Either way, moms can be grateful for scientific proof that their &#8220;mom brain&#8221; is actually their superpower.
***
Evie Solheim is a freelance journalist, book reviewer, and author of the newsletter <a href="https://eviefordham.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Girl’s Guide</a>. Find her on X <a href="https://x.com/EvieSolheim" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@eviesolheim</a>.

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We Already Knew Moms Had Superpowers — Now There’s Scientific Proof

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We Already Knew Moms Had Superpowers — Now There’s Scientific Proof