Moms of twins live longer

Compared with other mothers, women who deliver twins live longer, have more children than expected, bear babies at shorter intervals over a longer time, and are older at their last birth, according to a University of Utah study.

The findings do not mean having twins is healthy for women, but instead that healthier women have an increased chance of delivering twins, says demographer Ken. R. Smith, senior author of the study and a professor of family and consumer studies.

"Having twins will not make you stronger or healthier, but stronger, healthier women are more likely to have twins naturally," says Shannen Robson, the study's first author and a recent Ph.D. graduate in anthropology at the University of Utah.

Smith adds: "The prevailing view is that the burden of childbearing on women is heavier when bearing twins. But we found the opposite: women who naturally bear twins in fact live longer and are actually more fertile."

The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, was scheduled for online publication Wednesday, May 11 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The research was based on data for 58,786 non-polygamous Utah women who were born between 1807 and 1899, lived to age 50 and married once after 1850 to husbands who were alive when their wives were 50. Of those, 4,603 were the mothers of twins and 54,183 gave birth only to one baby at a time.