Laying down one's life for one's friends

Karen W just sent me a link to a story about people having as many children as the Lord might give them. The first page of the article ends with: "There are certainly a lot of question about the practice. Is it dangerous for a woman's body to keep having children, one after the other?"

Is it? In my own experience I, who seemed to be so weakly and given to illnesses in my youth, became healthier and stronger with each subsequent pregnancy. Was it the result of the growing self-discipline necessary for such a life-style? Or was it special blessing of the Lord for my willingness to serve Him with my body? Or was it the means He uses to bless women for their obedience to His Word?

We were delighted last year to hear the story that "some scientists have proposed that when a woman has a baby, she gets not just a son or a daughter, but a gift of cells that stays behind and protects her for the rest of her life. That's because a baby's cells linger in its mom's body for decades and -- like stem cells -- may help to repair damage when she gets sick." There is also a body of knowledge that suggests that pregnancy and lactation greatly reduce the risk of breast cancer.

But whether pregnancy promotes health or not, let's look at it with a Biblical perspective, an eternal perspective. Didn't Jesus say "greater love has no man than this: that he should lay down his life for his friends"?