Boys can make mothers worse than girls

The higher the number of boys, the higher the risk of reducing mothers' life expectancy, the scientists claim.

Pregnancy and lactation are two activities that consume a lot of human nutrition and energy. So many people think women's life expectancy decreases if they give birth to too many children. Because the body weight of a boy is always greater than that of a girl, it is likely that the mother will have to consume more energy and nutrients during pregnancy. Does the mother's life decrease because of that situation?

To explore this issue, Samuli Helle, an evolutionary ecologist of Turku University in Finland, and colleagues studied the records of more than 11,000 women and their children in a parish for three centuries. Most of the women they studied were born before 1960. In each case, the number of children of each woman was always recorded and the year they died, Livescience reported.

The results showed that the larger the number of male births of women, the lower their life expectancy. This trend is true for both poor and rich women, but not in women who have many girls.

Some scientists consider that the life expectancy of many male births is lower than that of women who have many daughters, not because they have to consume a lot of energy and nutrients during pregnancy and nurturing.

"As we know, in many traditional societies, daughters help mothers more than boys. Girls can help mothers take care of them and many other daily tasks," said Grazyna Jasienska, an anthropologist. of the Jagiellonian University in Poland, speaking.

Helle also acknowledged that, because most of the study subjects lived in pre-industrial times - when food was scarce than today and women had no concept of "family planning" - it was possible. The results of the study are no longer true to the current reality.

"Today, medicine grows very fast, family size is smaller than before and food becomes more abundant. Therefore, the price that women pay for childbirth is not as big as before 1960" , Helle explained.