Research shows that having more children can actually protect women against multiple health woes, such as certain types of cancer and possibly even dementia. Just like with parenting, there are ups as well as downs here.
Since having five or more kids is generally the cutoff point for being considered a “large” family, here are all the ways your parenting will change once you hit that pivotal plus-five milestone.
According to a Gallup poll, 4 in 10 Americans say three or more children is the ideal family size.
"The survey finds that the majority of respondents believe that two children is the 'ideal' number for family happiness, but the majority of respondents also have two children.
Experts say the best time to get pregnant is between your late 20s and early 30s. This age range is associated with the best outcomes for both you and your baby. One study pinpointed the ideal age to give birth to a first child as 30.5.
But many first-time parents find that after the first month of parenthood, it can actually get more difficult. This surprising truth is one reason many experts refer to a baby's first three months of life as the “fourth trimester.” If months two, three, and beyond are tougher than you expected, you're not alone.
A woman in her early to mid-20s has a 25–30% chance of getting pregnant every month. Fertility generally starts to reduce when a woman is in her early 30s, and more so after the age of 35. By age 40, the chance of getting pregnant in any monthly cycle is around 5%.
Women with two children are a bit less happy than their childless peers, with a 4-percentage-point gap (p < . 10). There are no appreciable differences in happiness for women with three or more kids; their levels of happiness are statistically indistinguishable from those of childless women.
Child number two or three doesn't make a parent happier. And, for mothers, he found, more children appear to make them less happy—although they are happier than childless women. For dads, additional children had no effect on their well-being in his study.
A TODAYMoms.com survey of more that 7,000 mothers found that the least stressful number of kids is four, while the most stressful number is three. Scary Mommy blogger Jill Smokler told Today that she wholeheartedly agrees.
According to a study out of Australia's Edith Cowan University, parents with the most life satisfaction (which means those who are the happiest) are those that have four or more children.
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Western culture idealizes youth, so it may come as a surprise to learn that in a recent poll asking this question, the most popular answer wasn't 9 or 23, but 36.
Four is the magic number. In a study conducted by Dr Bronwyn Harman from the Edith Cowan University in Perth, it was found that parents with four or more children are the happiest parents.
Surveys conducted over the last few years on representative samples in the US and Germany suggest that the percentage of parents who regret having children is approximately 17–8%.
“Once you get past two to three children, the risks increase for complications,” she added. In 2014, a study by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center found women who have four or more children double their risk of heart disease.
Two children. Research suggests that having two children is still most people's idea of the 'ideal' family size. Having said that, according to the Office for National Statistics, one-child families have been on the increase over the last two decades.
To “large families” 3 kids isn't a lot, and a family is typically considered big with 4 kids or more.
As it turns out, having three kids makes moms the most stressed of any combination of kids, according to a TODAY Parents survey. Mothers of three (naturally) reported more stress than parents of one or two kids ... but moms with four or more little ones actually reported lower stress levels.
According to a survey conducted by British parenting website Bounty, two girls are considered the best combination for parents to have a happy and harmonious family life. In their study, they surveyed 2,116 parents who had children aged 16 and under.
Happiness for people with siblings doesn't stop with the day-to-day. People with more siblings are more likely to report happiness in the workplace. It's a difference of 8 percentage points of workplace happiness from only children to people with four or more siblings.
People who have children live longer. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research who looked into the reasons for this found that people who have children tend to live healthier. The association between parity and longevity is not new. And there are very diverse theories on the subject.
Pros of having a third baby
You'll still be able to go out easily as a family of five. Your kids will have more than one sibling. Having three kids may be an easier transition than you think.
Although men never stop producing sperm throughout their lives, sperm production does begin decreasing after age 35. Motility, volume and genetic quality of sperm of older men are less likely to achieve a successful pregnancy even in younger women.
The researchers found that women who had live births had telomeres that were an average of 4.2 percent shorter than their counterparts with no children. This equates to around 11 years of accelerated cellular aging, said Anna Pollack, an epidemiologist at George Mason University and the lead researcher of the study.
Although a man's fertility can theoretically last until death, sperm production has been found to decline from around the age of 50. Although it is still possible to conceive a child, and many men do have children in their 50s or later, it may take longer for you and your partner to become pregnant.