They have jobs and computers and lives.

So this new study came as a surprise when I saw the press release in my inbox: Apparently, women who have their first child before age 20 are at a higher risk of chronic diseases and death when they reach middle age, a new study shows.

The study in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior says that women who are single when they have their first child are 1.42 times more likely to die early. They also have higher rates of heart disease and cancer.

The results are probably as a result not being married and the drop in income associated with being a single mother.

“Being unmarried at the time of first birth is associated with lower midlife income and a lower probability of being married in midlife,” said study author Dr. John Herettna. “It’s not so much the characteristic of being unmarried at first birth that’s important; it’s what being unmarried at first birth tells us about the midlife status of these women.”

Henretta used information from the Health and Retirement Study that included interviews with 4,335 American-born women between the ages of 51 to 61 who were followed for ten years. They were asked about their health, their level of education, their marital status, their incomes and wealth, how many children they had and the ages of their children.

I am not sure that these findings can be applied to the teen mothers I grew up with or teenage girls who may find themselves parenting today. The women in the study, all of whom were born between 1931 and 1941, may have been forced to give their children up for adoption, may have parented under severe social stigma and probably had no opportunities to further their education.

Education and opportunities to earn help to protect all women’s health. If you need to learn more about how to obtain this help, see the comments on this post at Solomother.

Post from: Babylune