Scientific Reports (Jun 2021)
The effect of pregnancy on maternal cognition
Abstract
Abstract To determine whether there are differences in measures of cognitive function between second and third trimester pregnant women compared to non-pregnant controls. This prospective study comprised 40 pregnant and 40 non-pregnant women, 20–40 years old, native-Hebrew speakers who were recruited from the outpatient clinics during a period of nearly 2 years. The patients underwent cognitive and affective evaluation. The performance on the three following tests: difficult and total items of Verbal Paired Associates, the Digit Span—forward and the Naming Objects and Fingers test scores were significantly better among non- pregnant women. All the other test results were similar between the two groups, including the depression scores. On multivariate linear regression analysis, after adjusting for age and years of education , Verbal Paired Associates total score (p = 0.04), and Naming Objects and Fingers (p = 0.01) remained significantly associated with pregnancy, but not Digit Span (p = 0.09). Our study demonstrates an impairment in memory among pregnant women. Furthermore language skills, particularly naming, were also impaired, a finding which has not been previously described.