MedicMagic.Net

Trend found in today’s young couples are avoiding living near the house of their parent-in-law. The reason is that the couple could be more independent, or they could also avoid the nagging mother-in-law. However, parent-in-laws living near them actually offers many advantages, in addition to be more efficient, it can also increase fertility.

Dr Virpi Lummaa from the Sheffield University analyzed the records of   300 years churches with the last data recorded in 2000. These records contain data of birth, marriages and deaths of farmers in Finland.

The study, presented at the 2012 Euroscience conference in Dublin found that married couples who live close to their parent-in-laws have more children. In addition, the distance between the child’s birth time is also shorter. Couples also tend to marry at a young age when their mother are still alive.

Not only that, previous research has found that children born from couples who living near their grandmother’s home are less likely to die in infancy. It seems that the new family benefits from the additional people who are willing to help provide care to children.

Dr Lummaa did not find any differences between the mother or father-in-law. However, previous research on African families found that the mother-in-law is a person who gives the greatest benefit.

The positive impact of mother-in-law is probably due to age. Men generally married at an older age than women, the paternal grandmother are also typically older and less able to help care for grandchildren.

“The role of grandfathers gives less obvious impact not because the grandfather does not doing anything, but because the help from grandfatheres cannot be translated directly by the grandchild,” said Dr. Lumma as reported by Medical Daily.

Besides studying the effects of being close to parent-in-law, Dr. Lummaa also learn why women lose the ability to have children when they are relatively still young, while other mammals are able to reproduce in their old age.

The latest research confirms the findings support the theory that menopause is a natural way to keep the women not have more children when they could be said still young as a grandmother. This mechanism will make menopausal women more focused to care for their grandchildren at the same time avoid the trauma of childbirth.