Children of late mothers have fewer health problems during adulthood, according to a study published in the journalDemography. Factors likematernal educational level and the number of years the mother has livedafter birth they are much more influential on the health of the child.
The researchers, from a team coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany), analyzed data from 18,000 American mothers. Although delaying motherhood increases the risk of spontaneous abortions and the appearance of genetic problems such as trisomy 21, which causes Dawn syndrome, the results revealed that the children of older mothers have greater height and life expectancy, as well as less obesity and others adulthood disorders than those whose mothers gave birth when they were less than 24 years old. Specifically, children of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were 5 percent more likely to havediseases in adulthood, and this data shoots up to 15 percent in the case of mothers between 14 and 19 years old.
The factors that explained the differences in health, height and life expectancy were, however, the maternal educational level and the number of years that mother and child were alive simultaneously. According to the researchers, this data may be due to the psychological effects of the loss, and to the longer time during which the mother financially and emotionally supports the child.
At the beginning of the last century, people died earlier, and therefore young mothers spent more years with their children than those who had them in advanced ages. Currently life expectancy has increased so much thatolder mothers also spend many years with their childrenand, furthermore, it is precisely those with the highest educational level that delay their motherhood the most.
This work will surely reassure many parents belonging to a generation that increasingly has children later. “At least when it comes to the health of the children in adulthood, we will not have to worry about the consequences of delayed motherhood,” said Mikko Myrskylä, coordinator of the study.
