Moms Of Multiples Are Healthier And Live Longer

Moms of twins already know that they are special. Carrying multiple children in the womb, much less going through labor with them, is physically demanding.

The good news, according to a just-released University of Utah study funded by the National Institute on Aging, is that mothers of twins are born healthier and stronger than other women. The study looked at the records for 58,000 19th century women from Utah and discovered that mothers of twins lived longer, were more fertile longer, and gave birth to more children in shorter periods of time.

Such robustness is less important now than it was in pioneer days, obviously, but it’s still interesting. Some other findings about twin moms compared to singleton mothers:

Mothers of twins lived longer after menopause.

Women who delivered twins had more children than expected due to simply the birth of twins. Mothers of twins averaged 1.9 and 2.3 more children, respectively, than average after controlling for various factors.

Mothers of twins went a shorter time between births.

The reproductive span age at last birth minus age at first birth was longer for mothers of twins, even when controlling for age of marriage.

Moms of twins also were older at the time of their last birth.

Note that this study only indicates that women who’ve had twins were healthier than their counterparts who give birth to singletons. So it’s not like this study means that you should deliberately attempt to have twins so that you’ll live longer!