"Mommy Makeovers" - What's the point?

Plastic surgery is a specialty given to trends.

One of the newest and hottest trends has to do with “mommy makeovers”. These “mommy makeovers” are targeted to young mothers who don’t plan to have any more children and now face the reality of previous pregnancies and the effects they can have on your body and self-esteem.

Many women are seeking to restore their bodies to their pre-pregnancy state. They no longer consider plastic surgery as being just for the rich and famous.

“Mommy makeovers” focus on the effects pregnancy has on two parts of the body, namely a woman’s breasts and her abdomen. During normal pregnancy these two body parts can be stretched out to a significant degree.

There is a limit as to how much the skin will contract following a normal delivery. Couple these changes that occur through multiple pregnancies, and the effect on these two parts of the body can be quite significant. When a woman views her body after multiple pregnancies she has the loose, fluid skin of her abdomen with multiple stretch marks and a pooching out of her lower abdomen due to weakness in her abdominal muscles. Her breasts have lost significant volume and may also sag and have considerable stretch marks as well.

The technical term for this latter condition is post partum breast involution. Perhaps 90% of women will suffer from this. Their altered self image is what motivates most women to seek help and inquire about a “mommy makeover.”

Sometimes the loss of breast volume can be corrected with simple breast augmentation. In cases where the sagging or ptosis is significant, one may require a breast lift, also known as a mastopexy.

To correct the deformities in the abdomen may only require some limited liposuction. If there is a small amount of excess skin, then limited liposuction may be combined with a mini-abdominoplasty. In some cases, the patient may have significant skin excess, with stretch marks combined with weakness in the abdominal muscle (a condition we call diastoses recti). This may require a full or complete abdominoplasty or tummy tuck.

The needs of every woman will vary tremendously so it is important to be examined by a board certified plastic surgeon who can do a complete exam and make appropriate recommendations. In most cases, these can be safely performed as an outpatient with minimal downtime. We also have excellent financing programs so a woman doesn’t have to delay in getting the procedure(s) performed. The pre-approval process can be completed in short order.

In some cases, a woman’s complexion may have been altered by the pregnancy. Many women have areas of darkened skin or hyper pigmentation. We now have available excellent non-surgical procedures as well as skin care products.