Science & Tech · Science & Environment · 2 hrs ago
Scientists say memories of being born are almost certainly impossible
Paul McCartney has said he remembers hearing forceps during his birth and seeing the doctor’s hairstyle.
Researchers say memories of birth are almost certainly impossible to retrieve because of infantile amnesia, the common inability to recall events from the first few years of life.
Most adults rarely remember events from before age three, and memories from ages three to seven are often patchy.
Babies can learn and remember, but those early memories are not stored like the autobiographical memories people recall later.
The brain changes rapidly in childhood, and new connections may disrupt existing memory networks.
Memories also depend on concepts such as time, place and the self, which babies have not yet developed.
Researchers say McCartney’s apparent memory may instead combine stories, family memories and imagination into a scene that feels real.
He has said he is unsure whether he made it up.
Scientists say it is almost certainly impossible for adults to remember being born.
The explanation is infantile amnesia, which leaves most adults unable to recall events from their first few years.
Researchers say early memories may be reconstructed from stories told by others, family memories and imagination.
Babies can form memories, but those memories are not stored in the same way as later autobiographical memories.
Paul McCartney has said he remembers hearing forceps during his delivery, while acknowledging he does not know whether he made it up.
- Who
- Scientists and memory researchers; Paul McCartney says he remembers his birth.
- What
- Researchers say memories of being born are almost certainly impossible to consciously retrieve.
- When
- The article was published on 14 October 2026.
- Where
- Not stated.
- Why
- Researchers point to infantile amnesia and the changing brain and memory systems in childhood.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Paul McCartney said he remembers hearing forceps during his delivery and recalled the doctor's hairstyle.
The Daily Mail published an article reporting that scientists say memories of being born are almost certainly impossible.
- Typical earliest adult memories
- Before age three, adults rarely remember events
- Patchy recollections
- Ages three to seven
- Brain size at birth
- One-quarter of adult size
- Brain size at age two
- Three-quarters of adult size
- McCartney's claimed memory
- Hearing forceps during his delivery
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What people are saying
What we do know is that any memories we claim to recall before the ages of two or three might have been constructed by someone else’s retelling of an event.
At birth, a human baby’s brain is only a quarter of its adult size.
In the moment that the brain is learning at a rate it will never show again during the whole lifetime, those memories seem not to stick in the brain.