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Women have long been advised to plan for babies early to avoid complications during pregnancy and delivery. However, a recent study suggests that having babes a little later could reduce their risk of womb cancer. 

Researchers have found that women who give birth to their last baby at a later age 44 per cent lesser risk of contracting womb cancer than those who deliver their babies by age 25. 

Womb cancer is the most common type of gynecological cancer in the U.S and UK and affects women in their fifties and sixties, reported Mail Online.

Researchers have found that the risk of the disease begins to drop after age 30 by around 13 percent with every five years delay in the last birth. 

The research team from the University of Southern California found that when compared to women who had their last child at age 25, women who delivered their last baby between age 30 and 34 had 17 percent lowered risk of contracting the disease, and those with their last babies between age 35 and 39 were found be at a 32 percent lowered risk. 

"The size of this study definitively shows that late age at last birth is a significant protective factor after taking into account other factors known to influence the disease - body weight, number of kids and oral contraceptive use," study leader Dr Veronica Setiawan  was quoted as saying by Mail Online.

The study, funded by National Cancer Institute is believe to be the largest of its kind and the researchers examined data from four cohort studies and 13 case-control studies for this. 

"We found that the lower risk of endometrial cancer continued for older mothers across different age-at-diagnosis groups, including under 50, 50-59, 60-69, and over 70 - which shows that the protection persists for many years. Protection also did not vary by the two types of the disease: the more common Type 1, which we think is related to estrogen exposure; and the more rare, but more aggressive and deadly, Type 2, which have been thought to develop independent of hormones," Setiawan said.

Further studies are required to determine why giving birth at a later age might reduce risk of womb cancer.  

The explanation given by Setiawan is that perhaps the fact could be that women who are capable of giving birth at a later age may naturally possess a healthy endometrium or experience fewer menstrual cycles without ovulation. 

Another possible reason could be that prolonged exposure to the hormone progesterone during pregnancy might be beneficial at an older age, the report said.

"This study shows an important protective factor for endometrial cancer, and when the exact mechanism by which it protects women from getting the disease is known, it can help our understanding of how endometrial cancer develops and thus how to prevent it," she concluded.

The study results are available online in the American Journal of Epidemiology.