There’s nothing quite like the joy of being a mother. The thrill of feeling your baby kick, seeing that miraculous little face for the first time, the tenderness of breastfeeding. It’s an incredible experience. But as great as parenthood is, it can take a real toll on your body. Weight gain, stretch marks, loss of muscle tone, sagging breasts – the list of physical “side-effects” goes on and on. Your body goes through tremendous changes during pregnancy, and more often than not, it doesn’t change back.
Some women seem to lose their excess pounds quickly and snap back to their pre-baby bodies with ease. But not everyone is that lucky. For most women, getting their body back requires significantly more effort. How your body reacts depends on a number of things – genetics, how much weight you gained during pregnancy, the size of the baby, the number of pregnancies you’ve had, and your fitness level. And even then you can never predict if you’ll end up with a “poochy” belly or exercise-resistant saddlebags. |
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Before and After
Breast Lift and Tummy Tuck
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When I see mommy makeover candidates in my practice, their biggest complaints are loose skin, sagging breasts, protruding tummies and fat deposits that just won’t respond to diet and exercise. They’re unhappy with how they look and feel, and they want to do something about it. That’s where a mommy makeover can help. It can get them back to their pre-baby bodies, and help them feel more attractive, self-confident, and comfortable in their own skin.
So what exactly is a mommy makeover?
It depends on the needs of the individual, but most commonly, it’s a combination of tummy tuck, breast lift or enhancement, and liposuction. To give you a sense of what each mommy makeover procedure can do for a typical “mom body”, here’s a quick rundown of the individual surgeries and the results you can expect from each one.
Lose those stubborn fat deposits
Liposuction is the most common surgical procedure out there, and it’s an especially effective approach for moms with stubborn problem areas. In addition to the overall weight gain that usually comes with pregnancy, hormonal changes can cause localized fat deposits in the abdomen, hips, thighs and back. Diet and exercise don’t help with these deposits (not that mothers have much time to exercise anyway), which makes liposuction the ideal solution for tackling trouble spots.
Please be aware, however, that liposuction is not a weight loss tool. It is for women who are close to their desired weight, have good skin elasticity and are just looking to contour specific areas that don’t respond to diet and exercise.
Tighten up the tummy
During pregnancy, the abdominal skin and muscles stretch and separate to accommodate the growing baby. For many women, this results in loose sagging skin, stretch marks, and a bulging belly from decreased tone in the muscles. The only solution is a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty), which is a surgical tightening of the skin and muscle of the abdominal wall.
This mommy makeover procedure removes excess skin below the belly button, tightens and flattens the abdominal muscles, and gets rid of stretch marks. I don’t recommend a tummy tuck if you’re planning to have more kids, however. I usually suggest waiting until your family is complete, since another pregnancy would likely stretch the abdomen again and reverse the effects of the surgery.
Lift sagging breasts
During pregnancy, milk glands in the breasts swell and replace fatty tissue, stretching the skin. Once that milk is no longer required, the glands shrink. Since the breast no longer has enough fatty tissue to fill it, it ends up losing volume, and becomes saggy or deflated-looking.
Your surgical options are a breast lift, augmentation or both. A breast lift removes excess stretched skin, raises the nipples and reduces sagging. If you’ve lost significant volume, a breast augmentation may be the right choice for you. It’s a procedure in which safe, natural-looking implants fill out the stretched skin and return the volume you lost during pregnancy and breast-feeding. Small incisions are made under the breasts or around the nipples, and the implants are inserted above or below the muscle of the breast, depending on your anatomy (and your preferences).
On the other hand, some women’s breasts increase uncomfortably in size during pregnancy – and stay that way after childbirth. In that case, a breast reduction may be the way to go.
Is mommy makeover surgery the right decision for you?
The best way to determine that is to talk with a qualified plastic surgeon. But to give you a general idea, here are a few questions I ask potential “mommy makeover” patients:
• Are you planning on having more children? If so, wait. Additional pregnancies will probably reverse the results of any surgery you might have.
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Are your kids old enough to be cared for by someone else for two weeks while you recover from you mommy makeover? Making lunches, doing laundry and carrying around a toddler could impact your recovery, the results of the surgery – and your overall health.
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Will you be able to take at least two weeks off for your mommy makeover?
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What do you expect from your mommy makeover surgery? It won’t change your life. It will make your body look better, and it will likely give you more self-confidence, but it will not change the way other people treat you.
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