That sounds a little cheesy. But in fact, the mother's brain apparently undergoes major changes after birth under the influence of changing hormones. Scientists compare it to the profound change that takes place in our thinking organ during puberty. This phase is therefore sometimes called "motherhood", writes my colleague Heike Le Ker in her exciting story "What happens in the head of mothers".

In the meantime, there are all sorts of serious scientific studies on this topic that show that the massive hormone fluctuations that accompany the birth of a child are not a temporary storm that affects the brain in the short term, but rather lead to permanent changes.

"You could compare it to a passing weather front that leaves behind an ever-changing landscape," science journalist Chelsea Conaboy is quoted as saying in my colleague's story. "In a figurative sense, these events act like plasticizers in the brain so that it can be transformed into something else." The brain is becoming more plastic and receptive to the world around it, which now includes a baby.

The research, which Le Ker describes in detail, seems to prove what many pregnant women and mothers actually feel: they are undergoing a fundamental change with long-term effects. Old needs and experiences sometimes fade into the background to such an extent that the woman has the feeling that her old life has been swallowed.

But just as there is life after puberty, there is also life after motherhood – I can assure you of that from my own experience. Look forward to it!

Heartily

Her

Veronika Hackenbroch

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Picture of the week

The sky over the Manhattan skyline shone a Martian orange glow this week. The smoke from well over 100 wildfires in eastern Canada had moved south. The air quality in the metropolis of New York dropped rapidly, it was in the meantime worse than at any time since measurements began. The coloration of the sky was created because the short-wave components of sunlight, blue and green, were scattered by the smoke particles on their way to Earth, leaving red and orange.

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