Mommy Makeover

What Are the Benefits of a Mommy Makeover?

A mommy makeover offers a customizable way to restore areas of the body commonly affected by pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. Benefits often include:

• A flatter, more toned abdomen through tummy tuck surgery
• Lifted or fuller breasts with augmentation, lift, or fat transfer
• Improved overall contour with liposuction

By combining procedures, patients can address multiple concerns in a single surgery and recovery period, generally making the process more efficient and cost-effective. Many women also experience a boost in confidence as they regain a more youthful, balanced figure. Ultimately, a mommy makeover is tailored to your unique needs, helping you look and feel more like yourself again.

What Are Breast Enhancement Options for a Mommy Makeover?

For breast enhancement, our doctors perform breast augmentation, breast lift, mastopexy-augmentation, and breast reduction. Breast augmentation is frequently used to restore volume changes after pregnancy or weight loss. It is also helpful in correcting breast asymmetry, a condition where dramatic size differences exist between the two breasts. A breast lift, or mastopexy, is an operation performed to elevate and reshape deflated, sagging breasts. With a mastopexy, our doctors can tighten the breast skin and reposition the breast tissue, providing a more youthful shape with improved nipple position. Depending on tissue characteristics and patient desires, mastopexy is often combined with breast augmentation, a procedure called mastopexy-augmentation. The addition of breast implants to the procedure usually ensures a very long-lasting result.

Some mothers experience tremendous breast growth with pregnancy or weight gain. For these women, breast reduction is an option, especially if they experience neck and back pain or an inability to exercise. In this procedure, your doctor will remove breast tissue and skin, making the breasts smaller, lighter, and more firm. For patients with large, sagging breasts, breast reduction provides a tremendous improvement in shape and nipple position, much like a breast lift.

What Are Body Contouring Options for a Mommy Makeover?

To restore changes in the hip and thigh areas, our doctors usually perform liposuction, removing undesirable fat deposits. While liposuction can dramatically enhance contours in areas that do not respond to diet and exercise, it is not a treatment for obesity. Common treatment areas also include the abdomen, waist, arms, neck, and back. Various liposuction technologies exist today, and your doctor will review all your options and deliver the safest treatment. For mothers who have experienced dramatic weight loss, loose skin often collects in the inner thigh area. For these women, thigh lift surgery is an option because liposuction will not remove the excess skin. During a thigh lift, your doctor will remove excess skin and fat from the inner thigh, tightening the sagging tissues.

Many mothers are interested in abdominal rejuvenation because excess skin and fat across the abdomen is often resistant to diet and exercise. Some mothers have poor muscle tone in this area, largely due to stretched or separated abdominal muscles. These changes are common after pregnancies or major weight fluctuations. A tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty, is an operation performed to flatten the abdomen by removing excess skin and fat and repairing separated muscles. Stretch marks are a common problem in this area, and a tummy tuck often eliminates them. When performed correctly, an abdominoplasty can be one of the most powerful form-enhancing procedures available in plastic surgery. And because every mother’s case is unique, your doctor will tailor your abdominoplasty to your concerns.

Indeed, sometimes a more extensive procedure such as a lower body lift is advisable. A lower body lift includes an abdominoplasty but also treats sagging buttocks, hips, and outer thighs. When recommended, this procedure involves a circumferential incision to remove a belt-like strip of skin and fat from around the waist, profoundly enhancing lower body contours.

How Is the Mommy Makeover Procedure Performed?

The particulars of your mommy makeover will be dependent upon the specific procedures performed, the extent of the issues being addressed, and whether the treatment is conducted at one time or in multiple stages. For the majority of patients, the proposed combination of procedures can be completed in a single operating session using general anesthesia, though some individuals may require a staged approach to help ensure optimal safety and results. Additional factors that may influence the treatment plan include available time for recovery, financial details, work/family responsibilities, at-home care, and more, all of which will be discussed in full detail at the time of your consultation.

How Is Recovery Following a Mommy Makeover?

Once again, there are many elements that will impact the mommy makeover recovery experience, including the unique combination of treatments employed as well as your body’s natural healing response. Some degree of bruising and/or swelling will often occur in the targeted areas, but these side effects should fade with time. Significant postoperative pain is uncommon, though any potential discomfort can generally be managed effectively with medication. During the initial recovery phase, it is important that you have a close friend or family member nearby to assist with everyday tasks (e.g. taking care of kids and/or lifting heavy items), as over-stressing the treatment regions can prohibit proper healing and negatively affect your final outcome. Once the use of any narcotic pain medicine has ceased, you can typically resume driving and/or non-strenuous work as you feel comfortable enough to do so, but any heavy lifting or strenuous exercise should be avoided for a minimum of several weeks.