We conclude that women may show specific areas of cognitive changes during and after pregnancy, notably deficits in verbal learning and memory.

A review of studies that have systematically observed cognitive and affective changes both during pregnancy and the post-partum period is presented, as well as new data that follow a small cohort of women for an extended period of time after delivery. The specific hormonal changes of pregnancy are described and discussed in relation to concomitant alterations in cognition and mood across the peri-natal period. This chapter provides a review of current literature establishing a role for a variety of steroids on neuroactivity, and evidence from a variety of observational and experimental paradigms linking hormones and clinical aspects of cognition and mood in humans. We argue that the dramatic steroidal hormone changes seen in human reproduction must be systematically studied and may provide novel explanations of cognitive and mood disorders associated with reproductive events. While basic science has actively worked to advance understanding of fundamental steroid mechanisms within the brain, investigation of the neurobehavioral outcomes of reproductive hormone actions on the human brain has received less attention. Steroidal hormones are increasingly recognized as highly relevant in multiple aspects of brain functioning.

Pregnancy moods