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Does this mean Kate Gosselin will live forever?
By Jenna Birch — Written on Dec 29, 2022
We've been hearing parents tell their clans of kiddos, "Y'all are gonna be the death of me" for ages, right? Having to change diapers, and chasing after two toddlers at once (and worrying about them) must take a few years off a mom's life, right?
Apparently not.
Because according to a study, there is one type of mom who is more likely to live longer.
According to a 2011 study, research shows that moms of twins actually live longer than moms who just have one baby at a time. Women who birth two children at once are generally stronger from the start, so they tend to live longer.
"We expected the exact opposite," researcher Shannen Robson from the University of Utah said. "We expected that since most humans have one baby at a time, having two would be really burdensome... [Twins] is an identifier of these women who are remarkable, physically exceptional people."
Researchers also found that double-birth moms "had longer reproductive life spans, needed less time to recover between pregnancies, and had more children overall."
The study looked at the "natural fertility" of a group of women in 1800s Utah and found that moms of twins generally had between 1.9 and 2.3 more children than single-birth mothers.
Maybe it should be a trend to start having twins.
To make sure this information was totally true (since twin babies have higher mortality rates), researchers also adjusted the numbers based on the idea that mothers who lost children might have another faster.
Moms of twins still came out on top.
The group that conducted the study hopes to look deeper into the reasons for these results, searching for answers that might benefit all mothers. Because if you push a baby out of you naturally, no matter how many at a time, you deserve all of the benefits you can get from that.
"By identifying them, we can then look at other aspects of what it is about them that makes them more healthy, live longer, and have babies at a faster rate than everyone else in the population," Robson said.
The only hitch in this study? The research may not apply to all mothers with twins.
The study was based on the "natural fertility" of a group of women over two centuries ago, so in our IVF world, things might be a little different.
But if you're a mom who birthed twins the old-fashioned way, this research proves your hard work will be rewarded.
Not only do you get two kids and only have to be pregnant once, but you get to live longer and have the potential for more twins. You can raise a family and make them into a band. Think of the potential!
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Jenna Birch is a freelance journalist for women’s magazines and national websites, focusing on topics like health, wellness, dating, relationships, and beauty.