So far movies and ads have portrayed having first child as the most joyous moment, but actually it is not so, says a new study. As per the study, having a child can have a pretty strong negative impact on a person's happiness.

Study researchers Rachel Margolis and Mikko Myrskylä for their study followed nearly 2,016 Germans who were childless at the time of start of the study. The duo followed the study participants until at least two years after the birth of their first child.

Respondents during the study were questioned about the rate of their happiness. There were two answers between the range from 0 to 10, where 0 indicated complete dissatisfaction and 10 means completely satisfied.

“Although this measure does not capture respondents' overall experience of having a child, it is preferable to direct questions about childbearing because it is considered taboo for new parents to say negative things about a new child”, said researchers.

Study researchers said main aim of the study was to gain insights into a longstanding contradiction in fertility in many developed countries between how many children people say they want and how many they actually have.

As per researchers, in German most couples said during surveys that they needed two children. But results showed that their birth rate remained relatively low nearly 1.5 children per woman for 40 years.

Margolis, a sociology researcher at the University of Western Ontario, found during their study that most couples in their study started out pretty happy when they set out to have their first child.

Results showed new mothers and fathers whose happiness went down, 37 % (742) reported a one-unit drop, 19 % (383) a two-unit drop and 17 % (341) a three-unit drop. On average, new parenthood led to a 1.4 unit drop in happiness.