If you’ve seen hard-to-believe pictures of celebrity moms who look exactly as they did prior to getting pregnant, chances are, they’ve underdone a mommy makeover.
Mommy makeovers are cosmetic surgeries that encompass individual procedures like tummy tucks, liposuction, breast lifts, and breast augmentation. A combination of all or some of these four procedures generally make up the majority of mommy makeovers.
What a Mommy Makeover Can and Can’t Do
While mommy makeovers can do wonders for women who have recently gone through birth, pregnancy, and breastfeeding, don’t expect a mommy makeover to bring you exactly back to your pre-baby body right away.
First of all, mommy makeovers cannot be performed until at least six months after the birth of your child. You need to give your body time to heal. That’s in addition to the time you’ll naturally be spending caring for your baby. Undergoing serious surgery during this time is unwise.
Furthermore, there are simply some natural limits regarding what a mommy makeover can do for your body. Up ahead, we’ll go over the amazing benefits a mommy makeover can provide as well as the limitations you should expect with this procedure.
What a Mommy Makeover Can Do
Mommy makeovers are amazing at improving the overall appearance of your body and get of getting rid of some of the troubling issues that come about due to pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing. Mommy makeovers can:
- Get rid of stubborn fat
Liposuction is one of the most common elements of a mommy makeover. This procedure involves your surgeon using a thin metal tube (cannula) and sucking out excess fat from areas like the tummy, flanks, thighs, and upper arms. After incisions are made in the target areas where you’d like fat removed, the cannula is inserted, the target fat is agitated, and it is removed.
- Get rid of excess skin
The tummy tuck procedure is another key element of the mommy makeover. This procedure reinforces the muscles of your abdomen, stretches the skin taught and gets rid of excess skin, and even gets rid of some stretch marks. Getting rid of excess skin is key for mothers because pregnancy often stretches the skin of the abdomen out so much that it never bounces back to its original size and position.
- Flatten your tummy
With a tummy tuck and the addition of liposuction, mothers can get their flat tummies back easily. Not only is excess fat and skin removed, but the muscles on the abdomen are actually tightened together. Loose ab muscles are usually caused by the expansion of the belly during pregnancy and can be an issue long after women have their children.
- Give you back your pre-baby breasts
With pregnancy and especially with breast-feeding, the volume of the breasts can expand and contract drastically, causing the skin to sag and loosen. While the breasts may be full and voluminous during pregnancy and sometimes while nursing, after nursing is complete, many women complain that their breasts sag, droop, and lack volume. Fortunately, mommy makeovers usually include a breast lift, a breast augmentation, or both.
What a Mommy Makeover Can’t Do
While you’ll get a long list of amazing benefits from a mommy makeover, keep in mind that they have limitations. For example, mommy makeovers cannot:
- Get rid of all stretch marks
While a tummy tuck can get rid of some of the stretch marks located down low on the abdomen, it cannot take care of all stretch marks. Fortunately, many of the stretch marks that appear due to pregnancy or indeed located low on the abdomen. If enough excess skin is being removed, therefore, it is possible still that a tummy tuck may take care of them.
- Prevent weight gain in the future
A mommy makeover can remove stubborn fat that won’t come off with diet and exercise. But it doesn’t stop a woman from gaining that fat back later on. Once a mommy makeover procedure is complete, it is up to the patient to maintain a healthy weight, and any weight gain in the future may end up hindering the results.
Embracing the Benefits of a Mommy Makeover
If one of your goals as a woman having children is to retain as much of your pre-baby silhouette as possible, there are several things you can do.
First, use preventive measures to ensure that your body retains its shape and fitness level throughout your pregnancy and afterward. This might mean continuing to exercise and eat right before, during, and after pregnancy. Drinking lots of water throughout these time frames can help as well. Finally, some women have success using topical creams and serums to reduce stretch marks and keep the skin as moisturized and springy as possible. This enables it to bounce back to its original state once you are finished having children.
Remember that these preventive measures only go so far, however. For many women, a mommy makeover is necessary.
As Dr. Raja Mohan, a plastic surgeon who specializes in mommy makeovers in the Dallas, TX area states, mommy makeovers are highly effective at restoring women’s bodies to their pre-baby state. What preventive measures, exercise, diet, and skincare and cosmetics can’t do, mommy makeovers generally can. Patients can choose to have as many or as few procedures performed as they need, and their surgeon can cater those procedures to their specific needs.
As you search for a plastic surgeon who specializes in mommy makeovers, simply be sure to choose one with board certification and a proven track record of performing successful mommy makeovers for satisfied patients.
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