The study led by Dustin Penn and Ken Smith of the University of Utah studied 21,000 couples living in Utah between 1860 and 1985. According to their data the couples bore a total of 174,000 children.
The research data showed that the more children a couple produced, the higher their risk of early death.
According to BBC reports, the study also found that the situation was worst for women, because they were affected by the physical costs of bearing the children.
Furthermore, the fathers' mortality risk increased the more children they had, but never exceeded that of mothers.
When the research team studied the deaths after the last child was born, it was found mothers were also more likely than fathers to die after the last child was born.
The research revealed that 1,414 women died within a year of the last child's birth, and another 988 by the time the child was five.
In comparison, 613 men died in the first year after their last child was born, with another 1,083 dying within five years.
Additionally, it also discovered that the larger the family, the more likely children were to die before the age of 18, particularly if they were among the youngest.
However, the study also said that with growing awareness, the women are also becoming more conscious to have fewer children.
"If women have generally incurred greater fitness costs of reproduction, this could explain why they generally prefer fewer offspring than their husbands and reduce their fertility when they obtain more reproductive autonomy," the research concluded.
