“Mom brain” would have a different ring if we appreciated what is really happening. Our brains shrink slightly (about 5 percent) in pregnancy, as a new brain is built from scratch. Nature invests in the next generation. After birth, new gray matter grows in regions of the brain associated with parental traits, bringing more ease to bonding with, understanding, and protecting our babies and regulating our emotions. Mental acuity is (temporarily) exchanged for a set of essential skills in a particularly tender time. May all mothers have this reflected to them when they’re feeling disoriented, ineffective, droopy, flawed… Mom brain is a gift of nature, a gift from one generation to another. We are more than whole.