Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Articles

Though it’s too soon for any formal research on the pandemic, many moms have said anecdotally that they’ve been feeling the strain. “I feel like I have five jobs,” one mom told The New York Times.

For some, that stress may be piling up on top of what was already an unsteady foundation. Parenting, particularly in the early days and particularly for mothers, is an all-consuming process. It can feel like you sacrifice much of your life only to emerge a few years later, virtually unrecognizable to yourself.

When you’ve already expended so much energy in raising your infants, it can feel like there’s nothing left to give to yourself. So, you begin making small concessions that, before long, become new habits.

Change begins not with reversing that trend, but with simply becoming aware of it. And once you start to see how easy it was to make choices that undermined your wellbeing, you’ll begin to feel empowered by the potential to shift your course.

Gaining confidence

Once a woman starts to reclaim her sense of self, she’ll become more confident, knowing she can be a mom without eliminating all other aspects of her identity. A mommy makeover, then, even for women who never previously considered plastic surgery, is a means to a fresh start, an opportunity to match her physical appearance not to the woman she remembers before she had kids but to the woman she wants to be for them.

Mommy makeover is a term that’s used to describe a combination of surgical procedures that are done in a single session. While the exact combination can be tailored to your needs and wants, it typically involves a tummy tuck, which is sometimes paired with diastasis recti repair, to tighten the abdomen and repair separated core muscles; breast augmentation, with or without a breast lift, to replace lost fullness and restore sagging breasts; and liposuction to remove excess fat and recontour the body.

Timing it right

Perhaps the biggest benefit of the mommy makeover is that, with a single surgery, you can address a range of concerns. Which means that you’re going under anesthesia only once and you’re also enduring just a single recovery.

The key is finding the right time to undergo the surgery. Every board-certified plastic surgeon will recommend that you wait until you’re done having kids. Enduring another pregnancy and labor will undo all of the surgical results. Even more, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to achieve the same results with a second mommy makeover at that point.

The recovery will go by faster than you think it will—most women can return to work within two to three weeks—but it’s critical that you be patient with yourself and give yourself the time and space to heal. If you have young kids, that may mean having your spouse or partner do the bulk of the parenting for a while. Even before that point, you’ll want to be in the proper headspace. It’s not so much about tempering your expectations as it is making sure you’re thinking big enough about the new phase of life that’s ahead of you.

In my last post, I highlighted the so-called “mommy makeover,” a highly customizable surgical procedure that can be a fountain of youth for women who feel like they’ve lost control of their bodies and identities after giving birth. Here, I’ll take a deeper dive, outlining what the surgery entails, how you can expect to feel in the days and weeks afterward, and where you should set your expectations for the years ahead.

What happens during the surgery

One of the biggest benefits of the mommy makeover is that, with a single surgery, you can address a range of concerns. Which means that you’re going under anesthesia only once and you’re also enduring just a single recovery.

But that also underlines the importance of, one, finding the right board-certified plastic surgeon for you and, two, being honest about your needs and wants ahead of the surgery. Because elective surgeries are generally limited to six hours as a safety measure, and the tummy tuck can absorb a significant portion of that time.

Most mommy makeovers include the following:

Tummy tuck: Your plastic surgeon will make a low, hip-to-hip incision, pull back the skin and underlying tissue, repair and tighten the ab muscles, and remove the excess skin and tissue. A hernia or diastasis recti repair may also be done in the process.

Liposuction: Fat is suctioned out through a thin tube, called a cannula, that’s inserted through small incisions at the targeted areas.

Breast augmentation: Usually coupled with a breast lift, your plastic surgeon will insert silicone implants, remove the extra skin, and reposition the nipples so that they sit higher on the breasts.

Common additions include a Brazilian butt lift, where fat that’s removed through liposuction is transferred to the butt to increase the volume and enhance the shape, and vaginal rejuvenation. Here, your plastic surgeon will perform a perineoplasty to tighten the vagina’s entrance and vaginoplasty to restore the vaginal canal and floor.

What to expect afterward

Plan to take a couple weeks off after the surgery so that you can fully dedicate yourself to healing. You’re probably going to be fairly sore for the first few days, but you’ll be prescribed pain medications that will help with much of it.

Some scarring is inevitable. But, for as invasive as the surgery is, the scars will be well-hidden—even in a bathing suit. Plus, there are number of treatments available to help reduce them once you’ve recovered, including microneedling with platelet-rich plasma and laser therapy.

You’ll start to see some of your results as the swelling subsides after a couple of weeks. Over the coming months, they’ll become even more defined. After a few months, you should see the full scope of your new figure. And those improvements will be long-lasting. As long as you maintain a healthy lifestyle, they’ll hold for years to come—even as your kids continue to make your life as difficult as they can.