May 16--FORT WORTH, TEXAS--
Jennifer Crum loves seven month old Madilyn--and seven month old Piper.
She wasn't shooting for twins but one bundle of joy somehow turned into two.
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"My mom was with me when we had the sonogram," Jennifer recalled. "We both screamed when he said you're having twins!"
Jennifer didn't know it at the time but a new study found that women who have twins live longer than those giving birth to a single child.
Researchers at the University of Utah studied birth records of more than 58,000 women who gave birth between 1807 and 1899, of those more than 4,600 had twins and those women were 3.3% more likely to live past the age of 50.
Robert Zwernemann is an OB/GYN at Baylor-Fort Worth--he called the story interesting and agrees with researchers that having twins isn't any healthier for women but rather healthier women have a better a better chance of having twins.
Dr. Zwernemann believes the age of giving birth probably also played a part in the statistics.
"Now, for even back then, I would say that's a little bit older to be having kids, " Dr. Zwernemann said. "People had more children back then than they do now but then people got married at age 12, 13, 14 and started having their kiddos. "
The number of twins born has gone up over the years--due in large part to fertilization therapies that were simply not available in the 1800's.
Jennifer is 25 years old and said she's always lived a healthy lifestyle--especially in the months leading up to getting pregnant.
"When we first started talking about having babies I decided to just be really healthy, eat the best I could," Jennifer said. "I started prenatal vitamins and I started taking fish oil, omega 3's"
And it paid off in more ways than one.
"I know it's rare to have natural twins so the fact there is a little added bonus that I might live a little longer is pretty cool."
Even though right now she doesn't feel that way.
"Having two babies," Jennifer said. "It's pretty exhausting."
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