Is a Mommy Makeover Right for Me?
As a board-certified plastic surgeon, part of what makes my job so enjoyable is being able to work with such a wide variety of patients. From patients who are experiencing the unwelcomed effects of aging, to those who have always felt insecure and unhappy with their appearance, plastic surgery can help many kinds of people to improve their self-confidence. One of the most common types of patients that I work with, however, is women who have had one or more children and want to return to their pre-pregnancy figure. Pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding have a profound effect on many areas of a woman’s body, and a common solution is to combine multiple procedures into one comprehensive surgery, called a mommy makeover. To help guide patients who are deciding whether or not a mommy makeover is what they’re looking for, I’ve compiled a few questions for patients to ask themselves when considering this procedure.
Do you want to see improvement in multiple areas of your body?
A mommy makeover is different for every patient, but it simply refers to combining a cluster of procedures that intend to help a woman counteract the ways that pregnancy has changed her body. Most women benefit from the combination of a breast procedure, a tummy tuck, and liposuction. Because every woman’s body responds differently to pregnancy and/or breastfeeding, some women desire a breast augmentation to restore volume that has been lost, while others are left with enlarged breasts and prefer a breast reduction, but most women need a breast lift in order to restore a more youthful shape and position, which can be combined with an augmentation or reduction as well. While a tummy tuck can serve multiple purposes by removing excess fat and loose skin in the midsection as well as tightening the stretched abdominal muscles, liposuction is used for areas that only need fat removal, such as the hips or thighs. For patients who would like to see results in more than one area of the body, a mommy makeover can be a more satisfying choice.
Would you benefit from minimized recovery time and surgical costs?
By combining multiple cosmetic procedures into one surgery, a mommy makeover provides several bonus benefits to the patient. First, the recovery time is minimized. While it’s true that it often takes patients longer to recovery from a mommy makeover rather than a simpler procedure, like a tummy tuck alone, the total recovery time for three procedures is lowered dramatically when everything is done in one surgery, as illustrated by the graphic below.
A mommy makeover can also significantly lower costs. The total price of plastic surgery includes a number of different costs, from surgeon’s fees and the anesthesia to the surgical facility to the medications used. By only using the surgical facility and anesthesia once, having one longer surgery as opposed to three more brief procedures can lower several of these costs.
Are you planning to have more children?
Understandably, many women are eager to return to their pre-pregnancy figure as soon as possible. However, I always recommend that patients wait until they are finished having children before pursuing a mommy makeover surgery. While plastic surgery can help to remedy the effects of pregnancy, it cannot prevent the same effects from occurring after future pregnancies, so patients can find themselves experiencing the same aesthetic concerns after having another child. The patients who will see longer-lasting and more satisfactory surgical results are those who wait until they’re ready to stop having children.
Has your body not returned to what it once was despite being in good physical health?
While many women do have added fat to lose after pregnancy, “losing the baby weight” is not always that simple. While diet and exercise can help new mothers maintain or return to a healthy weight, pregnancy can also cause loose skin and stretched muscles that cannot be resolved with a healthy lifestyle. As we continue to see women waiting until later years to have children, this is especially true for more mature mothers, as aging has made their bodies less able to “bounce back” than the bodies of younger mothers. Candidates for mommy makeover surgery should be in good health and should be seeking plastic surgery to improve the effects of motherhood that have been resistant to diet and exercise, rather than to take the place of a healthy lifestyle.
Pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood require a lot from a woman’s body, and they should be a source of pride. However, we live in an age where women can be mothers without having to give up their career, their interests, or their social lives, and thanks to cosmetic procedures like the mommy makeover, mothers don’t need to give up their figure either. To start setting up a plan to restore your body’s pre-pregnancy youth, schedule a consultation with me, Dr. Franklyn Elliott, and join me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ in the meantime to start learning more about the procedures I offer.
When diet and exercise don’t make the desired difference, I often receive questions about 