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经济学人下载:双胞胎母亲更幸福

2011-08-11来源:economist

To assess the effects of the demographic transition, the two researchers split the sample into women born before 1870 and those born in or after it. The results, just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, confirm their hypothesis. Mothers of twins in the pre-1870 batch gave birth, on average, to 1.9 more children than the mothers of singletons. Those in the post-1870 batch had 2.3 more. More importantly, from an evolutionary point of view, more of their children made it to maturity. The mothers of twins in the pre-1870 batch had 1.24 more children who survived past the age of 18 than did other mothers. After that date the figure was 1.56.

为了评估人口过渡的影响,这两名研究员分头对在1870年前和在这时及之后进行生产的妇女进行取样。结果公布在英国皇家学会学报上以证明他们的假说。在1870年前生产双胞胎的母亲平均比生一个的多生1.9个孩子。这在1870年后就变为多于2.3个了。更重要的是,从一个逐渐发展的角度来看,她们的孩子会更成熟。比起其她母亲来说,在1870年以前生育双胞胎的母亲会有多于1.24个孩子,这些孩子更能活到18岁。之后这个数据变成了1.56。

Of course, having twins automatically increases a mother’s lifetime fertility by one, relative to her number of pregnancies. But, since few women have twins more than once, the data imply that mothers of twins are more productive, even ignoring that effect. Moreover, they also outperformed the mothers of singletons on a range of other reproductive measures, including intervals between births (shorter) and the age at which they gave birth to their last child (older).

当然,拥有双胞胎无意识的增强了母亲一生的生育力,这也和母亲的怀孕时间有关。但是如果很少妇女能多于一次的生产双胞胎,那么数据显示双胞胎的母亲拥有更好的生育力,甚至可忽视其影响。此外,她们也超过一个母亲的其她生育价值,包括生育之间的间歇和生育最后一个孩子的年龄。

Most strikingly, the pre-1870 group of mothers of twins actually lived longer than those who were not thus blessed. They were, in other words, simply healthier. This suggests that, in evolutionary terms at least, twins are far from a curse. On the contrary, they are indeed the mark of a supermum.

更明显的,在1870年前生产双胞胎的母亲实际上比没有这份祝福的要活得更长。换言之,她们是更健康的。这个建议说明,至少在进化过程中,双胞胎不是祸根,正好相反,他们却是超级母亲的标志。