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The chances of divorce following a couple having had a child has been linked to low levels of oxytocin (colloquially known as the ‘love hormone’) in the mother both during and shortly after pregnancy a study has revealed. The study saw a team of researchers collect saliva samples from 341 pregnant women during their first and third trimesters before collecting a further sample between seven to nine weeks after they had given birth. Two and a half years after the last sample was collected, researchers contacted 188 participants and enquired about their marital wellbeing. Researchers discovered that women who had been found to have low levels of oxytocin during their first trimesters and following them having given birth were significantly more likely to have become divorced from their husbands. For every unit by which oxytocin was increased, however, the odds of the marriage surviving increased approximately nine times. Whilst this suggests that couples who have had a child are more likely to have divorced by the time their child is a toddler if the mother produced low levels of oxytocin, researchers were quick to point out that this may be too simple an explanation. Jennifer Bartz, who currently works as a psychologist at McGill University in Canada and who co-authored the study, has stated that "there are lots of good reasons why it doesn't make sense to stay in a relationship. Just because we've identified a characteristic in the mother doesn't mean it's causal."