Why you go away with the pixies when pregnant

NOBODY dares admit it, but some women do go a bit loopy when they are pregnant.

NOBODY dares admit it, but some women do go a bit loopy when they are pregnant.

"It happened to me," says Sarah Tidey, a well-travelled, 39-year-old mother of three. "I am normally very capable and organised but when I was pregnant, especially with my son Jack, I was away with the pixies.

"There were days I felt so vague. Once, I left my handbag on the roof of my car overnight. I would find myself locked out of the house."

Tidey's husband, Mick Elsworth, 40, who normally lives in awe of his competent, accomplished wife, "would stand there shaking his head at me, just bewildered."

There has long been debate over whether the sudden and strange behaviours among pregnant women and new mothers are the result of hormones, shock or the overwhelming rush of love to the brain.

A new book, The Female Brain, published this week in Britain by Bantam Press, says the truth is less romantic: the female brain shrinks by as much as 8 per cent during pregnancy, leaving once capable women sobbing helplessly at home, unable to get out of their dressing gown before noon.

The book, which has caused a storm in the US and Britain, says the brain recovers six to 12 months after birth to create "large maternal circuits" and important new skills.

Tidey agrees: over the past eight years, since her daughter Charlotte was born (followed by Imogen, 5, and Jack, 3), she has developed an awesome ability to juggle or multi-task. She works part-time as a lawyer, keeps the household on track and, in 2003, published her first children's book.

"I feel like I've got a better grip on what's important," she says. When she goes into work, it's with a steely focus on the tasks ahead. "I can see what needs to be done. I can cut through the stuff that doesn't matter, the things on the periphery.

"I'm always saying mothers returning to work are the best employees because they are motivated, they are efficient, they are focused."

Tidey's experience tells her there are differences between the genders from birth.

"I had two little girls, then Jack," she says. "I can't tell you how incredibly different he is. It's true that I'm more experienced but he's also so much easier. He's a simple transaction: if he's fed, run around, and he sleeps, it's all straightforward. The girls were much more complex."