The Joys of Parenthood: Did You Know That Having Children Is Actually Good For You?

Well, it’s official: children can bring more than joy into your life when you decide to start a family. According to a new study, couples that have their own children, or who choose to adopt, actually live longer than couples without children.

According to research published in the noted Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health children can have a major positive impact on the physical and mental health of their parents.

Researchers from Denmark studied population registers on births and discovered that women who had children and adoptive mothers were four and two times less likely respectively to die prematurely from circulatory disease, cancers and accidents, in comparison to women who do not have children.

Surprising the rates of death doubled for men who did not become fathers, either biologically or through the means of adoption.

Could your little one actually help you to live longer?

To come up with these findings researchers examined the amounts of births and deaths from 1994 to 2008, although there has been debate over whether or not these statistics are reliable.

“This is a very specific situation of people who are trying to have children – the study’s findings cannot be used to generalize across the whole general population,” said Dr Ingrid Collins, a consultant psychologist, speaking to the BBC.

“It is complicated and many factors play a part in death rates – people with deep spiritual belief, being married, having a higher social class – these can all help in living longer,” Dr Collins added.

Do you think being a mother can help you to live longer?