By Hannah Schenker
These days it is a lot more common for women to delay having their first baby, no longer are we having children in our late teens, early 20s anymore. As we rise in our careers, further our education or head out into the world travelling, starting a family gets put on the backburner. While there are some potential risks and negatives of being an older mum, you can rest assured that it comes with other benefits. A study by researchers in 2016 at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that women who chose to have their first baby later in life may actually increase their chances of living into their 90s. Interestingly, having more than one pregnancy also increases your chances of a long life.
The study, which was published in November 2016 in the American Journal of Public Health, began in 1991 with around 20,000 participants, with researchers following them for up to 21 years. They found a link between the age of a woman at the time of childbirth, and parity (the number of times she has been pregnant), with living into their 90s.
“We found that women who had their first child at age 25 or older were more likely to live to age 90,” said Aladdin Shadyab, PhD, lead author of the study with the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
