Holding father's thumb
A four-month-young baby holds the hand of her father in Eichenau near Munich April 9, 2012. Reuters/Michaela Rehle

Parents who experience stressful early parenthood are less likely to hope for another child, a new study suggests. Experts found that after the birth of the first child, parents’ happiness go down at a rate bigger than the experience of unemployment, divorce or the death of a partner.

The study by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock in Germany found that the larger loss in well-being caused by pregnancy, childbirth and the baby days decrease the probability that parents would want a second baby. Highly educated parents and those who waited longer to have a second child are the people who were strongly affected by the stress.

"The investigation deals with a taboo subject," the Institute said in a press release, because parents experiencing considerable loss of happiness after the birth of a first child is rarely discussed as an existing issue.

In a well-being data from 2,000 first-time parents, researchers found 58 percent took an average of nine years to have a second child. The data shows most German couples said they would like to have two children but end up stopping after the first child.

"I think people are making really rational choices," ‏said Robert Hughes Jr. professor of family studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Balancing work and family could be a burden for new parents, but altering work schedule and extra supports from experts could reduce the negative effect of the transitional period of having a first child, Hughes suggests.

However, despite first-time parents’ unhappiness after the first birth of a baby, having two children can increase overall happiness in life, said Mikko Myrskyla, lead author and demographer and director at the Planck Institute in Germany. Myrskyla also stated the research primarily aims to understand “why” parents are happy or unhappy, instead of “what” makes them happy.

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