Background <p><?tk 2?>In the postpartum period, postpartum women experience numerous brain structural and functional changes. Functional neuroimaging studies have focused on the responses of the maternal brain to infant stimuli ; however, the connectivity of the maternal brain remains to be explored. We aimed to examine the differences in functional connectivity patterns between postpartum women and nulliparous women.</p> Methods <p>Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 38 postpartum women and 25 nulliparous women were used to analyze functional connectivity. Moreover, we also collected Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C scores. The group functional connectivity differences were analyzed by a two-sample T test.</p> Results <p>Compared to nulliparous women, postpartum women exhibited increased functional connectivity in regions associated with emotional processes (insula, hippocampus, posterior cingulate gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus), while functional connectivity in the default mode network (inferior parietal lobule and precuneus) decreased significantly.</p> Conclusion <p>These results suggest that the maternal brain shows altered connectivity patterns, which may reveal the neuroanatomical basis for processing emotional and cognitive information in postpartum women.</p>