Pregnant women are not less lucid

She elected the French Minister of Justice.Photo: AFP.

The long-held idea is that the electoral era made women 's minds less lucid, or confused, but the latest work by Australian researchers found that these were just rumors.

The psychiatric health center of Australian National University analyzed an interview with 2,500 women aged 20 to 24, first in 1999, repeated in 2003 and 2007.

The group found that 76 pregnant women in the second and third interviews achieved a score of logic and memory not inferior to the previous one.

"And there is no difference between them and the controls," said Professor Helen Christensen, the lead researcher.

"It really has to ask the open question why pregnant women believe they have been confused while the best evidence we have is that they are not."

The professor also said the study in mice found that maternal mice have superior ability to do many things at the same time, better maze orientation and less anxiety or fear.

"There are major changes in the rat brain during pregnancy that you can extrapolate that women actually do a better job when pregnant than at other times," Christensen said.