Parenthood requires substantial behavioral adaptations to ensure the well-being of offspring. Such behavior relies on various hormones and begins during pregnancy. How pregnancy hormones affect the neural circuits that orchestrate parenting, however, is poorly understood. To tackle this question, Ammari, Monaca et al. studied the effects of pregnancy hormones on the medial preoptic area (MPOA), an area of the brain that is crucial for parenting behavior. They showed that, in mice, pregnancy-related hormones prompted parental behavior in late pregnancy. Notably, ablation of receptors for the hormones estrogen or progesterone, specifically in galanin-expressing MPOA neurons, abolished the pregnancy-induced behavioral changes. Furthermore, these hormones had distinct effects: estradiol silenced neurons but increased their excitability, whereas progesterone promoted spine formation and excitatory inputs, which together sparsened population activity and increased responses to pups. This paper reflects an increasing interest in topics around parenthood and women’s health, including pregnancy, which is bound to yield further exciting advances across neuroscientific subfields.