In just nine short months, your body shifts and expands to accommodate your pregnancy. Afterward, many of these changes disappear, but many women are left with lasting reminders of their previous pregnancies.
To give you an idea, the lead plastic surgeon here at McHigh Plastic surgery, Dr. Thomas McHugh, presents a few of the more common permanent changes that can take place in your body after a pregnancy. More importantly, we discuss how we can undo some of these changes if they’re not the sort of reminders you want moving forward.
As you’ve witnessed, the changes in your body during pregnancy are far from subtle. From weight gain and swollen feet to larger breasts and wider hips, not a small number of these changes can last far beyond your pregnancy.
The most common complaints when it comes to postpregnancy bodies include:
Your breasts swell and shrink during your pregnancy and breastfeeding, which is perfectly natural. After you’re finished breastfeeding, however, the rapid changes can leave you with saggy, smaller breasts that have stretch marks.
During your pregnancy, your body releases more relaxin, which is a hormone that relaxes both soft and hard tissues in your body. As a result, ligaments in your feet can stretch and your arches can fall, making your feet wider than they were before your pregnancy. As well, ligaments in your hips and lower back can stretch out, which can leave you with wider hips after pregnancy.
Another complaint after pregnancy is vaginal laxity. If you delivered your child (or children) vaginally, the tissues can stretch out past the point where they can bounce back.
Just as your ligaments and vaginal tissue may not bounce back after pregnancy, the same effect can happen in your abdominal skin, leaving you with less-than-taut skin.
Compounding matters, your abdominal muscles typically separate during your last trimester and up to two-thirds of women will still have some abdominal muscle separation a year or more after childbirth.
While you were pregnant, you packed on the pounds, and some of this fat may linger long after you give birth.
While there are some changes we can do nothing about, such as your larger feet, there are ways we can address some of the postpregnancy effects with our mommy makeover.
This isn’t a single procedure, but a combination of procedures that help women to undo the changes that pregnancy brought on. A mommy makeover is unique to your goals, but often includes one or more of the following:
You should only consider a mommy makeover once your family is complete, as another pregnancy can quickly undo any work we perform.
If you’d like to learn more about your mommy makeover options, please contact our office in The Woodlands, Texas, to set up a consultation.
