Yes, I’m Changing: the effects of reproductive experience on decision-making

by Hayley Cheok

Becoming a mother is a life-changing event – encompassing the journey of pregnancy, the birth process and parenting. It is an experience that brings about remarkable changes to a woman’s self-image and characteristics. Beyond that, it can also change a woman’s brain and consequentially, their behaviours.

The short-term effects of reproductive experience on a mother are well-documented and common knowledge. This includes shifts in life priorities and changes in appearance and body. However, there is a lesser known aspect that requires more attention – the long-term impact of reproductive experience on a mother‘s cognitive abilities, such as decision-making. 

In a recent study by Faraji et al. (2024), female rats with and without reproductive experience were subjected to decision-making tasks. So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look.

Momma knows best and is willing to bet on it

The female rats were subjected to several different decision-making tasks, so let us imagine you are a female rat for a moment…

1. You are presented with Box A, which gives you a yummy treat. You are also presented with Box B which gives you two yummy treats, alongside an electric shock.
2. You choose between A and B and get whatever was inside the box to eat, plus the electric shock if you picked B.
3. You then repeat this choice many more times, with varying levels of electrocution intensities.
4. All this happens while a bunch of humans record you in awe and type things onto a computer.

Results found that female rats with RE were more likely than non-RE rats to pick the punishable, large reward. Essentially, rat mothers dared to take risks more often than non-mothers to get a bigger reward, even if there was a potential for pain.

Now, back to rat session 2 –

1. You are presented with A, which gives you a small treat immediately. You are also presented with B, which gives you a big treat that you need to wait for.
2. You choose between A and B and repeat this many more times.

Results found that female rats with RE were more likely to pick a small, immediate reward over a large, delayed reward. This suggests that mothers are more impulsive and impatient than non-mothers, and were biased towards immediate rewards.

One final round of rat roleplay – 

1. You are presented with A, which sometimes gives you a treat but sometimes not at all. You are also presented with B, which will always give you a treat, but sometimes gives you an electric shock alongside it.
2. You choose between A and B, and this repeats many rounds.

Results found that RE female rats were more likely to pick B over A, when compared to non-RE rats, showing that mothers preferred getting shocked and getting a treat for sure, rather than not getting a treat at all.

Congratulations, the rat simulation is over and you are back to being a human typing things onto a computer!

So, what is happening?

In our family, we often make a dish that is a whole chicken, marinated in herbs and spices and steamed. This recipe has passed down generations and is something I could dream about when I feel homesick. While the breast, wing, and other meatier parts went to everyone else, my grandma always insisted on taking the tough, tasteless chicken butt for herself. A part of the chicken that most people chop off and choose to dispose of because it – but just so the rest of her family can have a more fulfilling meal, she took it for herself. Perhaps it is out of habit after doing it for so long, or perhaps she eventually took a liking to it – she still reaches for the chicken butt first at almost 95 years old, before any of the fleshier parts.

This is how you would find Hainanese Chicken Rice in a restaurant, with no chicken butt. The dish first originated from Hainan Island where my grandfather immigrated from, many years ago.

While it may be purely anecdotal – I feel that this study might support the “scarcity” mindset my grandma holds, surrounding the chicken butt. The changes in decision-making that occur may be neurobiological adaptations for a mother to cope with the increased requirements of child-rearing – that perhaps never really left my grandmother after all these years. 

Research has suggested that this may be a result of changes in dopamine signalling – which is key in cost-benefit decision-making in the brain. In particular, there is reduced availability of dopamine receptors in the striatum in women who have just given birth, indicating heightened risk-taking and greater bias towards immediate rewards. Additionally, there are also changes in opioid and hormone levels in mothers that may modulate this change in decision-making behaviour [1]. 

In conclusion, mothers need more resources to cater to their children, and therefore are willing to take on more risk to ensure these needs are all met. Additionally, mothers may need to be more impulsive to meet the rapid changes in responses that a child presents on an hour-to-hour (maybe even moment-to-moment) basis. Mothers may be choosing to prioritise immediate concerns of surviving, rather than long-term, abstract considerations. After all, how can you plan for the future if you can’t even get to the next day?

Where do we go from here?

Females have been historically unincluded and overgeneralised in medical studies – this is not only in humans but also in rats [2, 3]. Specifically amongst the female testing population, mothers are often unincluded, or the fact that they are mothers is rarely considered when analysing results. There are unfortunately a lot of issues with this. 

Firstly, individuals with psychiatric disorders may already have altered decision-making processes – they may exhibit heightened risk-taking and impulsivity than the average person. This coupled with reproductive experience-induced heightened risk-taking and impulsivity may make them more vulnerable.

You can think about it like this – you got rained on by a sudden drizzle, and your glasses are now covered in water droplets. It stops and you thought you caught a break (typical British weather I guess…), but it starts raining even heavier now. Your glasses are now way blurrier and no matter how much you try to wipe it off with your shirt, it only gets worse. Now your glasses are blurry and you cannot see clearly, and you are just overstimulated and frustrated from the whole ordeal.

While it may take a while for a major, paradigm shift in research regarding females with reproductive experience to happen, there is an imperative change we could make today. That is to be more compassionate to parents (both mothers and fathers!) who are at any stage of their parenthood journey:

1. Educate yourself

Every experience is unique in its own way, but recognising and empathising with certain things like the neurobiological and physical changes discussed in this blog post is a great step towards being more compassionate. 

2. Offer practical support

If they allow you to, helping out with things such as everyday chores or errands, gifting practical gifts like childcare items or food for parents who can’t cook – all these small gestures can go a long way in helping out parents.

3. Don’t be judgmental

I have once seen a Korean phrase that roughly translates to “It is also your mother’s first time being a mother”. It is a duty that no one can learn, until they have to do it themselves. Be understanding and supportive – most of the time parents do not need your advice, rather just someone who would listen.

[Cited paper] Faraji, M., Viera-Resto, O. A., Setlow, B., & Bizon, J. L. (2024). Effects of reproductive experience on cost-benefit decision making in female rats. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 18, 1304408.

[1] Cárdenas, E. F., Kujawa, A., & Humphreys, K. L. (2020). Neurobiological changes during the peripartum period: implications for health and behavior. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 15(10), 1097-1110.

[2] Homan, M. (2016). Health care routinely fails women. Blame “bikini medicine” – The Boston Globe. BostonGlobe.com. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/10/12/magazine/health-care-routinely-fails-women-blame-bikini-medicine/

[3] Ayoub, S. M., Libster, A. M., Barnes, S. A., Dulawa, S. C., & Young, J. W. (2024). Sex differences in risk-based decision-making and the modulation of risk preference by dopamine-2 like receptors in rats. Neuropharmacology, 109851.

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