STUDY: Moms who give birth in their 30s produce smarter babies

Data recently culled from a long-running study shows that children born from mothers in their 30s prove to be healthier and smarter than those born when their moms were in their 20s or 40s.

Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a program tracking the development of 18,000 British children, researchers from the London School of Economics were able to determine the impact a mother’s age had on the development of her child. Children born from thirtysomething moms gained the highest cognitive scores, outdoing children born when the moms were twentysomethings or fortysomethings.

One of the researchers, Alice Goisis, explained that women in their 30s were more likely to read to their children, more pre-disposed to breastfeeding, and were less likely to smoke.

She further explained that “First-time mothers in their 30s are, for example, likely to be more educated, have higher incomes, are more likely to be in stable relationships, have healthier lifestyles, seek prenatal care earlier and have planned their pregnancies.”

The study further showed that women in their 40s, while they may share the same status and predisposition as women in their 30s, produced children who were more prone to obesity because the older moms were less likely to play with their kids, as opposed to a younger-aged mother.