Every mother with a baby or toddler has experienced 'nappy brain' at one point or another. It's usually the moment where you forget the name of your husband, where you live, or what you wanted when you went into the kitchen. But scientists are now telling us that having a baby could possibly actually have the opposite effect on women's brains - and make us more capable!

Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, found that stem cells from mice foetuses migrate to the brains of the pregnant mother, and once there turn into cells that carry out different tasks. They expect to find that the same process occurs in humans.

The passage of stem cells through the placenta and into a mother's bloodstream is well recorded. The process of microchimerism sees our babies' stem cells end up in our bodies as super cells which can repair damage in our own bodies. This is the first time that the journey to the brain has been documented, and offers hope that brain damage, strokes or even Alzeheimer's may be treated with such stem cells.

• Celebrity Pregnancy Madness
  
• 0-1 The First Year
  
• This Week's News