A woman's best friend

4. Khachatryan L, et al. Influence of diabetes mellitus type 2 and prolonged estrogen exposure on risk of breast cancer among women in Armenia. Health Care for Women Intl, no. 32 2011:953-971.

I hope "Anonymous", Caitlin and Jane have regular mammograms because they are at increased risk. What the Cancer Councils do not dispute is that the younger a woman is at her first full-term pregnancy, the more children a woman has, and the longer she breastfeeds, the lower her risk of breast cancer.

Then there is the mental health after abortion study by Dr. Priscilla Coleman in the British Journal of Psychiatry, a meta-analysis of previous publications involving the experiences of over three quarters of a million women. She showed abortion significantly increases the risk of mental health problems particularly in the area of substance abuse, depression, and suicide and estimates that 10% of the mental health budget can be directly attributed to the treatment of complications of abortion.

The good news is research published in Age and Ageing, the scientific journal of the British Geriatrics Society, based on a community study of the inhabitants of Dubbo, NSW.

Researchers found there was an increase in mortality of all causes in later life in childless women while the more children women had, the more likely the women were to live for longer.

The study involved 1571 women aged 60 and over, who were followed for 16 years. The more children a woman had, the less likely she was to die during this time. Compared with women who were childless, death rates in women with two children were 17% lower. Death rates were 30% lower among women with five children, and 40% lower in those with six or more children. A baby can be a woman's best friend.