Childbearing and childrearing take their tolls on women by accelerating their process of aging.
According to a doctor, each time a woman becomes pregnant, it puts a lot of stress and pressure on her body organs and system, causing more damage and deterioration in quick succession.
These effects not only occur physically but also mentally, psychologically and even in the quality of children being raised.
Thus, he attributes this to the many problems plaguing Nigeria including Boko Haram, kidnapping, killing and robbery which result from unemployment.
My doctor also said having more kids accelerates the aging process in women.
According to a new study, the old saying that having children can take years off a person’s life may just be true, as scientists have revealed that childbearing can cause accelerated and premature aging in women.
Researchers at Yale University tested 100 healthy women from five rural communities in Poland and found that women who experienced more pregnancies, more births, and more time lactating (breastfeeding), had higher levels of biomarkers for accelerated aging. “The early stages of raising children are troublesome and when done repeatedly places a demand on the woman, physically, mentally and psychologically, not forgetting the financial and economic implications of feeding many children. These stress her and cause her to age faster.
This is not advisable if her temperament is such that she can’t cope. She could develop high blood pressure which could prove fatal,” he said.
What then is the ideal number of children to have? Depending on the circumstances, doctor says medical complications like womb rupture, bigger babies, difficult labour that could result in excessive bleeding which is a common cause of death for pregnant women in Nigeria, set in when a woman gives birth to as many as five children and above, over time.
He argues that the current average child per woman which is 5.3 is many when the Nigerian population is compared to the resources available but accepts that the National Population Commission recommends four children per woman some 20 years ago but in recent times, it’s between two and three children per woman.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) standard, a person is said to be aging when they are above 50 years of age but aging is a continuous process which makes it difficult to define scientifically, he adds.
Having many kids gives rise to increased oxidative stress, which is an imbalance between free radical production and a body’s ability to counteract their harmful effects.