--- title: Giving Birth Later in Life Linked to Longer Life description: A new study found that women who have kids after age 33 are twice as likely to live to 95 or older canonical: https://time.com/2922235/mothers-birth-pregnancy-aging/ author: Abby Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-25T19:35:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:32.862Z article:section: Health og:title: Giving Birth Later in Life Linked to Longer Life og:description: A new study found that women who have kids after age 33 are twice as likely to live to 95 or older og:url: https://time.com/2922235/mothers-birth-pregnancy-aging/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31f1dd354995d01/6986994af983e7438c04e91c/pregnancy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: hands on pregnant stomach og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Giving Birth Later in Life Linked to Longer Life twitter:description: A new study found that women who have kids after age 33 are twice as likely to live to 95 or older twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31f1dd354995d01/6986994af983e7438c04e91c/pregnancy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Older Mothers Tend To Live Longer, Study Finds by [Abby Abrams](/author/abby-abrams/) ## Abby Abrams Jun 25, 2014 7:35 PM CUT  hands on pregnant stomach hands on pregnant stomachGetty Images by [Abby Abrams](/author/abby-abrams/) ## Abby Abrams Jun 25, 2014 7:35 PM CUT Waiting a few years to start your family may give you some unexpected benefits, according to a new [study](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2014-06/bumc-rli062414.php "undefined"). Women who are able to give birth after the age of 33 tend to live longer than those who stopped having children before age 30, according to a study from the Boston University School of Medicine. “Of course this does not mean women should wait to have children at older ages in order to improve their own chances of living longer,” the study’s co-author Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine at BU, said. “The age at last childbirth can be a rate of aging indicator. The natural ability to have a child at an older age likely indicates that a woman’s reproductive system is aging slowly, and therefore so is the rest of her body.” The study, published in the journal _Menopause_, did not prove causation but it did find that women gave birth after age 33 had twice the odds of living to 95 years or older than those who had their last child by age 29. Researchers said the link exists because gene variations that enable women to have babies by natural means at a later age may also be tied to living longer lives. “If a woman has those variants, she is able to reproduce and bear children for a longer period of time, increasing her chances of passing down those genes to the next generation,” Perls said. Previous studies have turned up similar results to this one. An earlier study from the New England Centenarian Study found that women who had children after the age of 40 were four times more likely to live to 100 than women who had their last child at a younger age. More research is still needed, according to Perls. The information found in this study shows the importance of research about genetic influences and reproductive fitness, because these trends can affect susceptibility to age-related disease. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2922235/mothers-birth-pregnancy-aging/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2922235/mothers-birth-pregnancy-aging/"},"headline":"Older Mothers Tend To Live Longer, Study Finds","datePublished":"2014-06-25T19:35:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:32.862Z","description":"A new study found that women who have kids after age 33 are twice as likely to live to 95 or older than those who stopped having babies earlier","url":"https://time.com/2922235/mothers-birth-pregnancy-aging/","keywords":["Aging","Living","Babies","birth"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31f1dd354995d01/6986994af983e7438c04e91c/pregnancy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abby Abrams","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/abby-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31f1dd354995d01/6986994af983e7438c04e91c/pregnancy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hands on pregnant stomach","caption":"hands on pregnant stomach","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/aging/","name":"Aging"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2922235/mothers-birth-pregnancy-aging/","name":"Older Mothers Tend To Live Longer, Study Finds"}}]}] ```