More babies, longer life span?

https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/61/2/190/542517/Does-Having-Children-Extend-Life-Span-A  The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Volume 61, Issue 2, 1 February 2006, Pages 190–195

I came across an interesting article on using the genealogies of Old Order Amish to see how parity affected life span. Having a lot of children seems to affect both the life span of the father and the mother. Only after 14 (!) children do the pregnancies have an adverse affect on the Amish mother.  You’d have to read it and look up a few words (like parity—means number of deliveries) The advantage that I see in using genealogical records instead of medical records is it ended in 1912, before our current era of modern medicine.

So is it good genes, later menopause therefore affecting life span, or maybe having enough children around to work on the farm and take care of you in your old age? Since the majority of Americans lived on farms before the 20th c. I doubt it is any of today's concerns about diet, GMO, gluten and pesticides.

My genealogy has many Mennonites, some Old Order and some Old Order Brethren, some River Brethren but not sure about Old Order Amish. So far I haven't found another article on health among Old Order sects in American culture, but they are probably out there. You only have to look at a 18th-20th c. genealogies to see the longevity.

If you are related to me on my mother's side, her grandparents were Wengers. There is a database of of Hans and Hannah Wenger, 474,000 - 496,000 names (depending on update) of individuals, mostly descended from 18th century Mennonites, River Brethren (Brethren in Christ) and German Baptist Brethren who settled in Lancaster, Lebanon and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania, in Ontario, Canada and in Washington Co. Maryland and Botetourt Co. Virginia. In the 1800s a number of the families moved to Darke Co. and Montgomery Co. Ohio and to Iowa, Indiana and Kansas. In the early 1900s there was continued migration to Upland, Calif. and Modesto, Calif.