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Rosie Brown, Associate Professor in Physiology, University of Otago

The brain rewires itself for motherhood. We now know more about how

Tim Clayton/Getty Images

Some of the strongest parental instincts happen without conscious thought. The urge to check on a sleeping baby. To stay close. To pick them up when they cry.

Becoming a mother also brings about an extraordinary shift in priorities. As the late British psychotherapist and author Naomi Stadlen wrote, “motherhood can be relentless. The dependency, the need, the constant pull of being someone’s entire world…”

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