Having kids might actually benefit your brain

Women who have had more kids tend to have better memory function later in life, according to Australian research, which also found that both mums and dads over 70 had thicker cortical brain regions than people who had never had kids. Generally, the thickness of your brain's grey matter declines with age, so this finding may indicate that being a parent helps keep your brain young. The researchers say parenthood is a learning experience that lasts for two or more decades and, as such, may contribute to brain health. However, this type of study cannot show that having kids actually caused the improvements in brain function that the researchers observed.