How to cope with baby brain when you go back to work after maternity leave
“Baby brain” – the plague of new mums everywhere, especially when returning to work from maternity leave.
In case you don’t know what it is, it’s a brain-fog of forgetting things and feeling totally off your game once you’ve had a baby.
Some people have also done some science stuff to look into it, so if you’re experiencing it; you can take comfort in the fact that it’s not made up or an excuse, but definitely a real thing! It’s partly caused by hormones and partly sleep deprivation. (You can find out more in this article.)
I absolutely suffered it myself – these were the things I did after having a baby that were just so unlike me:
- Left my key in the ignition of my car in Tesco car park
- Cooked meals without fundamental ingredients
- Left my car boot wide open on my driveway (multiple times!)
- Lost my bank card
- Totally forgot I had arranged to meet a friend for lunch
Baby-brain sometimes really made me feel like I was absolutely useless at life in general.
Here are some practical things you can do to work around it. (I’m not going to say eradicate it because I think it goes away in it’s own sweet time)
- Post-it notes
Put them everywhere! Use them for everything. Make sure you move them around sometimes so that they don’t become ‘wallpaper’ that you stop noticing.
I found this particularly useful on the front door for things I kept forgetting to leave the house with.
- Have a dedicated place to write everything down
Our brains are actually not designed to remember everything at the best of times, let alone when baby brain strikes. By having one go-to place for writing down things you don’t want to forget, you reduce the mental load you’re carrying. It could be a notebook, or it could be on your phone. Be consistent with the one place and that will help you build the habit. Side note: You’ll also need to set aside some time to look through all the things you’ve written down and decide what to do with them.
- Set alarms
Alarms don’t have to just wake you up in the morning. They can remind you to pay the credit card bill or leave the office on time too. Most phones now can set multiple alarms with different titles so you can get specific about what you’re reminding yourself to do.
- Have a weekly review
This is one thing I never skip. Take a little bit of time where you can try to get to grips with what’s coming in the week ahead and also celebrate all the good things you did in the past week, rather than focusing on all the baby-brained things that you did. We don’t celebrate ourselves enough.
- Ask other people to put things in writing for you
When you’re chatting to colleagues, ideas and tasks can come up. There’s no shame in asking them to send you a chat or an email about it so that you don’t forget.
- Give yourself a break
If you’re getting frustrated with your own brain fog – give yourself a break. You’ve birthed a human and gone back to work on probably torturous levels of sleep deprivation. OF COURSE some things are going to slip. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Baby brain might put you off your game but do remember it’s usually temporary. You will get your brain back (usually when you start getting some sleep!).
If you’ve got other coping mechanisms, drop them in the comments!
Juggle Struggle blog 