Some interesting things about motherhood...

Men and women may both be as likely to want to get married and have kids (at least in the state of Virginia), but both sexes perceive that women want both marriage and kids more than men do.

Pregnancy causes deficits in memory that may be long lasting:  We know that steroid hormones affect cognition and memory, and pregnancy is a time of varied and high levels of estrogens, progestins, and corticosteroids.  A study due out next week suggests that the result of this hormonal exposure on the mother is diminished memory performance.

Perhaps that effect on memory has something to do with the fact that mothers tend to have less Testosterone than non-mothers (at least in the Phillipines).  And not to be left out, men show a similar trend, in that, males who are fathers and/or in long term committed relationships have lower levels of testosterone than single men who have no children.

Have high blood pressure?  Maybe you should have kids... it seems that men and women who have children tend to have lower blood pressure than those who do not have kids (and that's both systolic, the higher number, and diastolic, the lower number). Interestingly, the difference was larger in women than in men, where mothers had the lowest average blood pressures and women who were not mothers had the highest blood pressures.  So, if you forgot to get mom a gift this year, just go ahead and tell her she owes you thanks for her low blood pressure.