Does Having Kids Make Mothers Age Faster?

There’s an old wives’ tale that having a child ages a woman. And why wouldn’t it? When a woman becomes pregnant, her body undergoes a massive transformation. She gains weight and her metabolic rate spikes. Her pulse quickens. Her uterus expands and presses on surrounding organs and blood vessels. Her estrogen and progesterone levels surge, reaching astronomical levels. The volume of gray matter in her brain shrinks.

While all these changes are necessary or advantageous for childbirth, many of them can cause problems later in life. Sex hormones improve reproductive odds but can cause an increased risk of breast cancer. A greater amount of mitosis, or cell division, means greater cellular damage. The high metabolism required for pregnancy and lactation increases oxidative stress, believed to accelerate aging. Building up the baby’s bones depletes the mother’s calcium. Hosting an “alien” organism forces her body to suppress its immune system, changing her response to infection.

It should come as no surprise, then, that some studies have linked childbirth to reduced lifespan. A 2007 study of population data from late 19th-century Utah, for example, found a correlation between the number of children a woman had and her mortality risk.¹ A 2006 historical study of women in rural Poland also linked having more children with a shorter lifespan.²

How would