Some women are biologically programmed with a “bad mothering” brain switch, according to a new study by Virginia’s University of Richmond.
The study found that women develop a cluster of brain cells — called maternal neurons — during pregnancy. These brain cells switch on after birth, resulting in good parenting skills. However, the research showed that the mothers with fewer ‘maternal neurons’ were more neglectful or abusive.
So, is it nature or nuture? Are our parenting destinies completely out of our control? Or can we accept your limitations and move beyond them?
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What an odd little nugget of scientific research.
So, they found evidence that some women’s brains are wired to be good mothers, and some are wired to be bad mothers. However, they do not investigate…
1. Does the mental state and general well-being of the woman during pregnancy relate to how many maternal neurons develop? (i.e. is the woman being emotionally supported by her mate/friends/family, does she have proper nutrition and exercise, does she have any symptoms of depression, is she enjoying being pregnant or not, etc.)
2. Does the background of the woman before pregnancy relate to the number of maternal neurons? (i.e. how many neurons did her own mother have, how did her own parents treat her as a child, did she prefer playing with dolls as a child or not, etc.)
3. Did any of these women take child-care classes during pregnancy, and was there any correlation between this and the number of maternal neurons?
4. Are they planning on checking if men who are neglectful or abusive to their children have differences in “paternal neurons” from other fathers?
While scientific discovery is important, we do need to be careful about drawing conclusions, because most of the time we don’t have the full story. It sounds like this scientific study had very limited parameters and tracked limited variables, so while it may be a starting point for predicting parental behavior, it’s too early to put much stock into it.