Can Having More Than Two Children Have Serious Consequences For The Heart?

No one could imagine that having more than two children could seriously compromise the heart health of mothers. However, this is confirmed by research carried out at the Universities of North Carolina and Cambridge.

It seems that if you have between one and two children, there is no danger of increasing your risk of having a heart attack. However, this changes if you go for the third child and, even more, the risk increases if you have a fourth or successive children.

Although this may alarm us at first, the study’s own lead researcher, Dr. Clare Oliver Williams, says that its objective is not to scare anyone, but only to draw attention to the possibility that there may be a greater risk of suffer heart attacks if you have more than two children.

Pregnancy and childbirth

During the investigation, finding out that having more than two children can have serious consequences for the heart prompted scholars to focus on what happens during pregnancy and childbirth.

The great stress that is suffered while the baby grows in the womb  and, also, when the moment of delivery arrives is evident.

All women who have been mothers know that they must be alert to any problem that may affect their baby. In fact, many go to ultrasounds with great stress or, when they believe that the doctor is not being clear with them, they begin to think that something is wrong.

This added to the control of what they eat, to avoid toxoplasmosis, weight control, the fear of a miscarriage due to a risky pregnancy or the worry of thinking that a hereditary disease in the family can affect the baby, are things that they can create great stress for all mothers.

Having more than two children increases stress

The stress that can affect the heart health of mothers is not only present during pregnancy and childbirth, but also after it.

Caring for a baby plus two young children, for example, can be very stressful. In addition, to all this must be added concerns about money, lack of time due to work or other responsibilities.

If having a child or two already exerts high pressure on the heart, if you have more, it is normal that the risk of suffering a cardiovascular accident increases. Let’s see what consequences, in addition to these, we can suffer due to stress:

• Blood pressure increases.
• Inflammation in the body increases.
• It can increase cholesterol and triglycerides.

The study data

The research looked at data from up to nearly 9,000 white and African American women, ages 45 to 64, and came up with very interesting answers. The conclusions they reached were:

• Mothers with more than 5 children had a 25% higher risk of having a stroke.
• Women who had multiple miscarriages had a 60% risk rate for heart disease.
• Breastfeeding improved the cardiovascular health of women. Those who breastfed their children less increased their risk of having a heart attack.

A person with five children, if their stress is minimal, may have a lower risk of heart attack. For this reason, it is important that mothers who are busier or suffering from stress, keep an eye on their heart health.

Despite all the data that the study has provided on having more than two children, it is best to take a medical check to make sure that everything is going well, since it will depend on the person being at greater or lesser risk of suffering an attack cardiovascular.