Article content

It’s not all in your mother’s head: having children really does age you.

A new study has found giving birth makes women’s DNA look 11 years older.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Having children ages a woman faster than smoking or obesity: Study Back to video

Researchers at George Mason University in Virginia wanted to see how motherhood impacts a woman at the cellular level. For their study, they looked at telomeres, an important part of the human cell that affects how cells age.

“Anecdotally, just chatting with my friends who have children, we all do feel that having kids has aged us,” Anna Pollack, a researcher at George Mason University told Newsweek.

“But scientifically, this does fit with what we understand pretty well. We know that having kids is associated with a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes. And some large studies have linked telomere length to mortality risk and risks of other major diseases.”

Telomeres are the caps at the end of each DNA strand. They shorten as people age. Experts believe telomere length is linked to better health and longer life.