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Love, worry, panic, joy, peace, pain, laughter, and stress — these are just a few emotions that motherhood evokes. When you become a mother, there are several things that you have to take into consideration, most of which revolve around your baby. But have you ever wondered how the responsibility of motherhood affects your physical and mental health? If you’re a mom, you will probably agree that you constantly juggle between emotions, duties, and chores. You’re ecstatic one minute and drained out of energy the next. It’s not unusual, and it’s just what the package entails.
Your body goes through massive changes during pregnancy, but that does not change once you have the baby. You continue to be stressed, and you probably don’t remember the last time you had a good night’s sleep. Well, that’s motherhood for you! Let us tell you that things might not change for a long time, not until your kids go off to college because motherhood is a cocktail of several unexpected turns — the good, bad and weird. So without further ado, let’s look at motherhood at its best (and worst):
The Good
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Did you know that motherhood has several health benefits? Here are some of them:
- Reduced Risk Of Breast Cancer
Studies have shown that pregnancy reduces the risk of developing breast cancer. Being pregnant exposes you to certain hormones that decrease your chances of developing breast cancer, if not preventing you from it (1).
- Decrease In Cardiovascular Diseases
The duration of lactation was associated with cardiovascular health. A study conducted in 2009 found that women who breastfeed for at least 12 months have a lowered risk of cardiovascular diseases. They also found a reduced risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol in women who breastfed compared to women who have never breastfed (2).
- Increase In Brain Size
We’ve all heard the phrase “mommy brain” or the “pregnancy brain”, referring to dumb and forgetful things that pregnant women do. But did you know that pregnancy increases the size of your brain with each child? Studies showed that a part of your brain called the hippocampus responsible for memory and learning increased in size during pregnancy and motherhood (3). So think twice before you call your mother dumb the next time!
- Increase In Lifespan
You might feel like motherhood is draining the life out of you sometimes, but studies show that being a mother increases your life expectancy. The study also suggested that women who had more than four children had a reduced risk of dying earlier (4).
The Bad
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Now that you understand a few health benefits of being a mom, let’s look at the “bad side”:
- Stress Stress And More Stress
If you’re a parent, you know that stress comes with the territory. People with kids tend to be more stressed than people without kids. But a fascinating fact is that, when mothers breast, a hormone called oxytocin is produced, which suppresses the stress hormone cortisol (5). So, yes, you might be stressed as a parent, but nature has got your back!
- Increased Risk Of Obesity
Being a mother increases your chances of becoming obese. A study found that mothers were prone to unhealthy weight gain after giving birth, and it increased with more children (6). So, moms, you have to work extra hard to get rid of the mom bod!
The Plain Weird
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We aren’t going just to let you go without pointing out some of the weird things that happen to you when you embrace motherhood. Here are a few:
- Bigger Feet
Pregnancy increases the size of your feet! Yes, you read that right! Several changes occur in your body when you’re pregnant, and getting bigger feet is one of them. A study conducted in 2013 showed that women lost arch height and rigidity in their feet while the length and arch drop increased (7).
- DNA From The Child
Your child leaves behind some DNA in your body that may reduce your symptoms of certain autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. The condition that leads to retaining a baby’s DNA in the mother’s body is called fetal-maternal microchimerism (8).
Motherhood is an unexplainable phenomenon. It’s so complex yet so common, and that’s what makes it unique. How many of these facts surprised you? Comment below and let us know your experience of the good, bad and weird side of being a mother!
