The "Mommy Makeover": Is It Right For You?

Pregnancy has a way of destroying everything you liked about your body. If you did not like your body before pregnancy, you will probably like it even less after. The more kids you have, the more your body accumulates large pockets of fat and sagging, drooping areas.

Despite the fact that most women feel that the physical attractiveness of their body is worth the trade-off for children, it still tends to cause quite a shock after the first, second, and/or third child is born. If you are completely finished with having all of the children you want, you may want to consider a special sort of tummy tuck package, often called "the mommy makeover." More information on this procedure, and whether or not it is right for you, follows.

The Procedure

A "mommy makeover" attempts to restore your pre-child body. Only women who have decided that they are done having children should seek this procedure. It is rather an extensive form of the tummy tuck, and becoming pregnant again would completely undo all of the cosmetic work you had done.

For starters, the surgeon will do a "belt lipectomy." The belt lipectomy is a lot of liposuction around your abdomen, hips, and "flanks," which are the outside areas of your thighs. Fat may also be removed from your waist and buttocks, but it can be used as filler material for the next part of the surgery. Your buttocks are lifted and shaped. Then your abdominal muscles, which were stretched apart during pregnancy, are tightly sutured together, drawing your stomach up and in, which gives your waist more definition.The flap of skin created to remove abdominal fat and suture your stomach muscles is pulled down over the newly-flattened stomach, and then the excess skin is removed. 

Next, the surgeon switches focus to your breasts. The breasts receive a full lift, including any liposuction that may be needed for "side boob" and "back boob" fat. Depending on the current size of your breasts, you can choose to have them augmented or have them reduced. Most women's breasts tend to shrink after pregnancy, causing the breasts to be smaller than they were before pregnancy. Only a small percentage of women experience the opposite effect; oversized breasts post-pregnancy and childbirth. You can also choose to leave your breasts alone and just have them lifted.

Is the "Mommy Makeover" Right for You?

You have to be within twenty pounds or so of your goal weight. That is often difficult for a lot of moms, since they tend to gain a lot of weight with each successive pregnancy and have a much harder time shedding it afterward. However, this particular combination of surgeries has the most dramatic effect, and one which will definitely improve the look and feel of your body.