Women's News: Discovering how pregnancy shapes the brain

Hello, Risers! Here’s what’s on the rise this week:

Spotlight

A neuroscientist studied the brain’s transition to motherhood by scanning her own brain 26 times before, during, and after pregnancy. The results show that “mommy brain,” or the reported fogginess that many pregnant women experience, is much more nuanced than stereotypes suggest. 

• The first-of-its-kind study captured detailed changes that affect most brain regions during pregnancy. Key areas in the cortex shrank while other brain connections strengthened temporarily before returning to baseline after birth.

• The researchers believe the brain shifts are actually “evolutionarily-tuned” mechanisms to spur “maternal behavior and bonding,” and hope that further study will offer insights into conditions like postpartum depression. 

• Expanded research with a larger group of pregnant women is already underway.

World

• In France, 71-year-old Gisèle Pélicot has become a symbol of the nation’s battle against sexual violence as she confronts her perpetrators in court. Pélicot chose to keep her trial public “in solidarity with other women who go unrecognized as victims of sexual crimes.”

• As the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death approaches, Iranian women are more frequently seen in public without their hijabs, an act of defiance in the face of heightened government restrictions.

• The Taliban began enforcing its new “vice and virtue” laws regulating women’s dress and behavior in public, and Afghan women say they’ve lost hope of these restrictions ever easing.

• A new statue of England’s late Queen Elizabeth II has drawn criticism for its lack of resemblance to the late monarch, with one reviewer commenting that it looked more like Mrs. Doubtfire.

Business and Tech

• Amazon will require employees to come to the office five days a week, it announced yesterday, moving away from its post-pandemic hybrid working model. Here’s why return-to-office mandates often present challenges for working mothers.

• AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li raised $230 million in investments for her new startup, World Labs, which will look to build AI models that can “understand and interact with the 3D world.”

• Business Insider named Jamie Heller as its next editor-in-chief. She joins the publication after two decades at The Wall Street Journal.

Politics

• A North Dakota judge struck down the state’s near-total abortion ban, ruling that the state constitution grants women the fundamental right to choose abortion before fetal viability.

• Similarly, Arizona’s 1864 ban on nearly all abortions is no longer in effect after the state legislature repealed the law on Saturday. Abortion up to 15 weeks will remain legal, and voters will decide in November whether to protect the right to abortion in the state constitution.

Election Watch

Healthcare

• Women are throwing “egg showers” to celebrate freezing their eggs. The festivities, similar to baby showers, aim to destigmatize fertility treatments and support women as they take “charge of their fertility futures.”

• A new study found that over 5% of women who have their tubes tied go on to experience pregnancy, meaning that this “permanent” birth control method is not as foolproof as many expect.

Sports

• It was a landmark week at the WNBA. A’ja Wilson became the first player to score 1,000 points in a season, while rookie Caitlin Clark broke the records for most points scored in a debut season and most single-season assists in league history.

• U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles took her Olympic dispute to the Swiss Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the ruling that revoked her bronze medal due to a delayed appeal from her coach during the event.

• Michaela DePrince, a ballerina whose journey from an orphanage in Sierra Leone to principal dancer at major companies inspired many, has died tragically at age 29.

Culture

• The Golden Bachelorette, the spin-off of the reality dating show The Bachelor that features later-in-life romantic hopefuls, premieres this week, and real women in their 60s and 70s say the fantasy the show sells is far from reality.

• A New York woman is challenging policies that prohibit mothers from participating in the Miss America and Miss World pageants, arguing the rules are based on outdated stereotypes.

Further Reading