Second pregnancy changes the brain in surprising new ways

A second pregnancy changes the brain in ways that are both familiar and distinct from a first pregnancy, according to new research from Amsterdam UMC published in Nature Communications . Building on earlier work showing that a first pregnancy reshapes the brain, the researchers found that each pregnancy leaves its own unique imprint on the maternal brain.

In an earlier study, Elseline Hoekzema and colleagues became the first to demonstrate that pregnancy changes the structure of the human brain. They also showed that pregnancy affects how the brain functions. For this latest research, the team followed 110 women over time. Some were expecting their first child, some were pregnant with their second, and others remained childless. By performing repeated brain scans, the researchers tracked how the brain changed throughout the study.