At the beginning of March 2023, Russian media replicated the words of the expert of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, which stated that the life expectancy of a woman was increasing if she gives birth to many children. We decided to check if such a statement is confirmed by scientific data.

On March 3, at the Russian pediatrician congress, the chief freelance specialist in the reproductive health of women of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Natalia Dolgushina said that large mothers live longer, since each child gives the woman a “supply of strength and energy”. According to Dolgushina, this "was proved in research."

The statement of the expert of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation quoted large media ("Says Moscow","Gazeta.ru","News","360tv.ru", IA"Red spring"). However, many users of social networks did not appreciate such advice to extend their lives and in the comments on the news doubted in the words of the expert. For example, community subscribers "Dual"On VKontakte, they left the following reactions:“ What myths will not come up with to try to increase the birth rate, ”“ Women who have never gave birth always look younger than those who are giving birth. And their age sores are later manifested, "" the Ministry of Health is trying to PR. " Twitter users also doubted In the words of the expert of the Ministry of Health: “[large mothers live longer] except those who die during childbirth” or “What do many children live in the Ministry of Health?”

On the one hand, pregnancy is a difficult test for the female body, users of social networks are absolutely right in this. The most common after pregnancy and childbirth of a woman collide With the following pathologies: postpartum bleedingIncluding life -threatening hypotonic and atonic, uterine infections, bladder, kidneys or mammary glands, hemorrhoids, problems with breast feeding, postpartum depression. Do not forget about the difficulties during gestation: toxicosis, Gestosis, preeclampsia and eclampsia, anemia, gestational diabetes And thyrotoxicosis, varicose veins. By data Obstetrician-gynecologists "Medsi", the largest Russian network of private clinics, only about 40% of pregnancies proceed physiologically, that is, without complications, and this share is constantly reduced. However, doctors are successfully struggling with complications of pregnancy and childbirth - from 2000 to 2020, the coefficient of maternal mortality (the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 livestings) all over the world Reduced About 34%, and in Russia - by 73.6%.

According to Statista, in Russia in 2021 this indicator composed record 34.5 deaths, however, as they say Experts, the reason for this is not the low quality of medical services, but a pandemic of coronavirus infection. Such an explanation correlates well with the fact that in the downtime years, the maternal mortality rate was several times lower - for example, in 2018 only 8.8 deaths took place per 100,000 livestings.

Despite all the difficulties of bearing and childbirth, childbearing can benefit the female body. The most famous facts about the benefits of lactation are most famous. So, breastfeeding reduces The risks of developing cardiovascular diseases in the mother. Women who have been breastfeed for at least 12 months, below The risk of arterial hypertension, hyperlipidemia (excess fat in the blood, which can lead to atherosclerosis) and other cardiovascular pathologies. At the same time, every next six months of breastfeeding after 24 months of lactation reduce the risk of heart disease by another 3-4%. Only six months of lactation reduces The risk of developing type II diabetes by 25%, and a year or more - by 47%. Every year breastfeeding reduces At 4%, the risk of breast cancer develops without a genetic predisposition to cancer of the mammary glands and ovaries. The bearers of the mutation of the BRCA1 gene (it Increases The risk of breast cancer is up to 85%, and the risk of ovarian cancer is up to 28–44%) risk decrease even more impressive - by as much as 37%in one year of lactation.

However, not only lactation brings the benefit of health, certain bonuses can give a woman and pregnancy. During gestation in the blood of a woman, the level of female sex hormones increases - Estrogenov, which also protect the body from oxidative stress, slow down the development of certain types of cancer and inhibit the degeneration of stem cells into adipose tissue. Pregnancy also “rejuvenates” the woman’s brain. Scientists from Norway, the Netherlands and Great Britain Teached Artificial intelligence to determine the age of a woman by MRI-grains of the brain and then compared the answers obtained with the real age of those who passed tomography. It turned out that one child “rejuvenates” the mother’s brain for 0.4 years, the second gives another 0.5, the third - as much as 0.75, and the fifth and further to the eighth - 0.82 years. Scientists explain this by the fact that during pregnancy some areas Reduced In size, and after childbirth, they are restored in a larger volume. Thus, the brain of five children will be younger than the brain of her childless peel for more than 2.5 years.

But what about the life expectancy of a person, and not the health of individual organs? To evaluate the correctness of the words of the expert of the Ministry of Health, you will need to turn to certain statistical parameters. At first glance, the most logical would be the parameter of the actual expectancy of life, that is, to analyze the age of the death of women who had a different number of children. However, such a parameter will be subject to temporary distortion. The same maternal mortality has decreased sharply over the past decades, moreover, the standards of obstetric care have changed. The second possible parameter is the expected life expectancy of now living women with different number of children. However, there is almost no data on the expected life expectancy of women with a breakdown by the number of children in the public domain. And finally, the third important statistical parameter is the risk of death from all the causes that is calculated by scientists both as a whole in the population and for individual population groups. For the most complete analysis, we will turn to the first and third parameter.

In 2012, Danish scientists Published their observations of more than 21,000 childless couples undergoing IVF protocol. It turned out that those couples who gave birth to a child during the nine years of observation reduced their risk of mortality from all causes by 25%. It is interesting that couples who adopted the child in the same period almost also reduced their risk of mortality. True, interpreting the results of this study, it should be borne in mind that the couples were initially not healthy, as well as the fact that childlessness in this group was not a voluntary choice, but a medical diagnosis.

In 2016, Canadian scientists Bone The results of a 13-year observation of 75 women from Guatemala. Researchers studied how volunteers have changed the length telomer - The end sections of chromosomes, which shorten the cell, thus determining its “age”. It turned out that the telomeres of many children were contracting more slowly than women who gave birth to one or two children. Researchers explain this with the beneficial influence of estrogen, which functions as a powerful antioxidant and protects cells from telomeret contraction.

But perhaps the most amazing study It was published in 2006. Scientists from the Medical School of the University of Maryland (USA) analyzed the genealogical tree of the local community of Amisha - representatives of the extremely conservative branch of Protestantism with a significant number of large families. It turned out that the life expectancy of fathers increased linearly with an increase in the number of children (each child added 0.23 years), while the life expectancy of mothers increased linearly to 14 children (0.32 years per each), but decreased with each additional child after the 14th. However, ameshi, practicing marriages only with co -religionists, are not very indicative, since in principle possess a unique genetic mutation that significantly prolongs life, protecting them from type II diabetes, as well as originally longer telomers.

Also interesting Conclusions, made by Kiron Barclay from the German Institute of Demographic Research by Max Planck and Martin Kolkom from Stockholm University. Scientists compared the actual life expectancy of childless men and women who have from one to eight biological children and have from one to four adopted. In total, data on 4 million Swedes born between 1915 and 1960 were analyzed. It turned out that the first and second baby for the most part extend the life of both parents compared to the childless, the fourth again reduces it to the level of childless and this tendency is observed to the seventh. But the eighth equalizes the life expectancy of their parents with their childless peers. But not only blood children affect the life expectancy of parents. The first and second adopted child is significantly (much stronger than relatives) increase the life expectancy of their parents. The third slightly reduces the life expectancy of the mother, but increases the fourth adoption negatively affects the life expectancy of both parents, while still prolonging it compared to their childless peers.

However, not all studies are so optimistic. There is another view of the problem, reflected, for example, in published in 2006 research specialists of the University of Yagello in Krakow. Having analyzed the birth rate and mortality in the four rural regions of Poland from 1886 to 2002, the scientists found out that each daughter extends the life of his father on average by 74 weeks, while every born child, regardless of gender, reduces the mother’s life by 95 weeks. Scientists explain the decrease in the maternal life expectancy with “reproductive costs” - an increased need for nutrition during bearing and breastfeeding, which is not always possible to satisfy.

Such results of Polish scientists are well consistent with Theory one -time (or consumable) catfish. In 1977, an employee of the British National Institute for Biological Standards and Control Thomas Kirkwood suggested that the body and each cell in the conditions of permanent limitations of resources have a choice between two life strategies: renewal and repairing its own structures or reproduction. This principle is good Described At the cellular level, but there is no sufficient evidence that it identically works with multicellular organisms. In particular, the use of such a theory cannot explain the growth of the life expectancy of mothers, demonstrated in the studies described above.

However, analyzing the conclusions of each specific scientific article, a number of limiting factors should be taken into account. Some of the considered populations are societies with natural birth rate, that is, contraception in them either does not exist or is not used due to religious and other restrictions. In such populations, large families indicate an initially stronger health, a childless woman, most likely, is unhealthy and, in any case, has no chance to become a long -liver. The second restriction is socio-economic, that is, a woman decides to give birth to his next child for her personal reasons, realizing that she has resources for this, or follows the standards accepted in society, for example that it is unacceptable to terminate the pregnancy, even if the family does not have enough means for educating a son or daughter. Finally, the third restriction can be conditionally called cultural - it is associated with the age of birth of the first child and the role of the father or relatives in raising children. It is also worth considering how much the mother’s lifestyle changes when bearing a child and after his birth, namely, whether the use of alcoholic beverages and smoking for young girls is permissible in a specific culture and whether parting with these bad habits after the birth of a child is accepted; how the work of women changes during pregnancy and after; Whether the nutrition of a woman changes during these periods and whether in principle there is a trend in the use of potentially non -laid food in culture (fast food, semi -finished products, etc.). All these factors can also affect the life expectancy of the mother, reducing or prolonging her.

The scientist from the University of Toulouse Eric Le Burg tried to analyze the research on this topic and bring out a general pattern. He Came To the conclusion that in communities with natural birth rate, when the fertility is close to its biological maximum, the life expectancy of the mother is not reduced in proportion to the number of children born, but in communities with controlled birth rate, mortality can slightly increase in those who have five or more children.

Also the results of meta -analysis introduced Chinese specialists. Having studied 18 scientific articles from different regions of the world, which analyzed the connection of childbearing and mortality based on 2,813,418 people, they built a schedule of regularity.

Source. The dotted line is indicated Trust interval

As can be seen from this schedule, the risk of mortality from all causes in women decreases immediately after the birth of the first child, this trend continues after the birth of the second and third. But the fourth child negatively affects the risk of mother's death from all causes. Similar risks of mortality from all causes have both women who have not given birth to a single child and gave birth to six.

However, not every woman is suitable for a recipe for longevity, which consists in the birth of three or four children. If the first child was born with a cesarean section (and by statistics WHO, every fifth newborn in 2020 was born in this way), the probability of the second and subsequent Caesarean is pleased. Some doctors still adhere to the principle “once cesarean, always cesarean”, although statistics It is indicated that successful vaginal birth after an operation is possible in 60–80% of cases (but only about 35% of women They are solved To that). And although women who have undergone more than five Kesarev are known, usually doctors Consult Do not have children after the third operation.

Not only the method of delivery affects the very possibility of large families. Doctors with certain health problems can advise to refrain from pregnancy and childbirth or terminate the current pregnancy. In Russia, all such pathologies approved legislatively, this list includes various malignant processes, the active form of tuberculosis, some mental illness, severe course of epilepsy, some cardiovascular pathologies (for example, Tetrada Falllo), imperfect osteogenesis, etc.

Summing up, we can say that the thought voiced by the expert of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation is fully consistent with scientific data. Large families in Russia counts the presence of three or more children. As most studies show, such an amount is really able to increase the life expectancy of a woman and reduce the risk of death from all causes. Not only native, but also adopted children can influence the life expectancy of the mother. True, as in the case of relatives, this pattern is not linear. At the same time, the scientific data and Dolgushin are primarily focused on the biological aspects of childbearing, and not on socio-economic ones. Given the fact that, by statistics, every seventh Russian lives outside the poverty line, it is unlikely that such a way of extending life is suitable for any resident of the country.

Image on the cover: East Idaho News