Pregnancy Actually Increases Your Biological Age!

Moms will tell you pregnancy ages them, but now there’s a study to support that theory — with an interesting caveat.

Being pregnant ages a woman by about two years, but there’s a way to turn back time. A woman can reverse her biological age by 8 years by giving birth, according to a study from the Yale Child Study Center published in Cell Metabolism last month.

At three months postpartum, the biological age shifts by as much as 8 years for some individuals. 

So while pregnancy increases biological age there is a clear (and pronounced) recovery in the postpartum-say the scientists.

However, not all women recovered at the same rate. Women who could be classified as obese and who had a higher body mass index (BMI) before pregnancy didn’t age in reverse as much as women with a lower BMI, who were in the more normal weight range. 

Breastfeeding also lowered the moms’ biological age. These findings could pave the way for more aging research.