Mommy Makeovers have gained popularity as more women discover that these combined plastic surgery procedures can be an effective way to restore their pre-pregnancy figure. Although the physical changes that occur after pregnancy and breastfeeding can be different for each woman, these changes usually affect the breasts. For this reason, breast enhancement (often breast augmentation) is usually incorporated as part of a Mommy Makeover.

How Motherhood Changes the Breasts

Breast size generally increases when women are pregnant and breastfeeding. This increased size can cause the skin to stretch as well. Yet, when women have finished breastfeeding, their breasts lose volume and the stretched skin causes their breasts to droop or sag.

How Breast Augmentation Can Help

Breast augmentation (also referred to as “breast enlargement”) increases breast size. At the same time, the added volume can fill out stretched skin and create a better breast shape. This can go a long way toward helping women get a look that resembles (or may even be better than) their “breasts before baby.”

The Breast Augmentation Procedure

During breast augmentation surgery, a saline or silicone implant is placed either above or beneath the chest muscle. The size of the implant can be fine-tuned to achieve just the increase women desire. There are several incision patterns that can be used for placing the implant, and your surgeon should discuss these with you in detail, as well as your breast implant options. Performed at an outpatient surgery center (not in a hospital), breast augmentation at my Columbus practice generally involves a relatively quick and comfortable recovery.

Combined Augmentation & Lift

If there is significant sagging (ptosis), a breast enlargement may not be enough to restore a perky look. In such cases, women often choose to combine their breast augmentation with a breast lift. These procedures can be safely performed together, for a more youthful breast appearance.

At my plastic surgery practice in Phoenix, I often consult with frustrated moms who have lost their pregnancy weight, but can’t seem to get back the flat abdomen they had before the baby. Conventional wisdom tells us that “just a few more” crunches should do the trick, but this isn’t always true. My experience is that we can work out to build muscle and lose weight, but we cannot exercise loose skin or loose connective tissue.

One of the reasons women end up with a protruding belly after having children is that the abdominal wall becomes stretched during pregnancy. The connective tissue that envelops the “six-pack” muscles becomes loose and prevents the abdomen from being flat regardless of how many sit-ups we do. This condition is sometimes called diastasis recti or myofascial laxity. Often after significant weight loss or after pregnancy the abdominal wall does not bounce back to its normal tone. This results in the “pooch” (protruding belly) and thickened waist that frustrate so many moms.

The other reason why women cannot get their pre-baby tummy back is that there is extra skin that will not improve with either diet or exercise. Once skin elasticity is lost it must be tightened surgically. So what’s a mom to do if she ever wants to get back in her skinny jeans or a bathing suit?

I recommend tummy tuck for my Phoenix patients with these concerns. This surgery is the tried and true way to repair the damage that pregnancy has done, and give you back a firm, slender midsection. The procedure repairs the separated muscle, eliminates the loose skin and stretch marks, and uses liposuction to get rid of excess fat and improve the contour of the waist and flanks. As an authority on abdominoplasty, I use innovative, effective techniques for optimal results. Some women even come out looking better than they did before they had kids!

It’s a few weeks into 2010 and by now I hope you’re having success if your New Year’s resolution is to change your body image with modifications to your diet and exercise routine. As you lose weight and tone up, you may start to notice that a few areas of your body aren’t responding as well as you’d like.

For instance, weight fluctuation along with more regular, vigorous exercise like jogging can cause breasts to sag, combining with factors such as age, gravity, and breastfeeding to affect the shape and position of the breasts.

For this concern specifically, many Los Angeles breast lift (mastopexy) patients have chosen the procedure so that they can feel confident with their body from head to toe and show off all the hard work they’ve done to slim their bodies.

While it’s still early in the year, now is also a time when many people begin getting frustrated or discouraged with their health and fitness goals. If you’ve fallen into this camp, I encourage you to re-dedicate yourself and find that inner energy to make your goal a reality. And if you feel a few “trouble spots” – like love handles, or a belly “pooch” – are standing in your way, you may want to consider body contouring procedures like liposuction or a tummy tuck to help you achieve success.

Whatever your objectives are for improving your health or enhancing your appearance this year, don’t be hesitant to ask your doctor questions about the options that are out there.

“If I have large breasts, am I more likely to need a breast lift later in life?” It’s a question that may be on the minds of many young women. There’s no easy answer. Each woman responds differently to the aging process. However, every woman will experience some breakdown of breast tissue due to factors such as weight loss or breastfeeding, aging, and gravity. As the tissue loses elasticity, breasts droop and sag, giving them a flat and elongated appearance. This will happen to women even if they have small breasts.

So, rather than pointing to a direct cause/effect relationship between breast size and breast sagging, what I can do is discuss how my breast lift patients in Tampa may have special concerns related to their large breast size.

The results of a breast lift are not permanent. Eventually, gravity will cause the breasts to droop and sag as they did before. It often seems that the speed and severity with which this occurs can increase for women who have larger breasts. For this reason, many women with large breasts choose to combine a breast reduction with their breast lift.

Although I cannot say with absolute certainty that larger breasts will definitely cause increased sagging, I can suggest that large breasts have other concerns that are more clearly defined. These include back, neck and shoulder pain, rashes, and unwanted attention. So, although large breasts are not a promise of increased sagging, they can be the cause of significant discomfort. For this reason, many younger women consider a breast reduction before they are in need of a breast lift.

By: Grant Stevens, MD

If you’re thinking of plastic surgery after pregnancy, safety is obviously your top priority. Some surgeons and patients used to assume that when they combined procedures under one surgery, they were increasing the patient’s risk of complications, but recent evidence suggests otherwise.

In last week’s blog, I explained how a new clinical study I presented shows that combination surgeries have a safety profile very similar to standalone procedures. This week, I’ll show how this information fits within the “big picture” of your procedure choices.

Safe Surgeries vs. Safe Surgeons

To speak plainly: Surgeries are only as safe as the surgeons performing them.

My study looked at the complication rates of over 250 patients receiving a tummy tuck in Los Angeles along with breast enhancement at my practice, Marina Plastic Surgery Associates, over a 10-year period. The results show that combination surgeries have complication and revision rates similar to standalone procedures – when performed by skilled surgeons, in a safe setting, using up-to-date techniques.

Factors like these may increase the risk of plastic surgery after pregnancy:

• Lack of surgeon certification or sufficient training
• Failure of the surgeon to keep up with new techniques
• Failure of the surgeon to maintain high standards for staff education and training
• Poor standards for facility safety

Your surgeon will be more capable and better able to handle any complications that arise if he or she holds board certification from the American Board of Plastic surgery and stays involved with the latest research (weekend seminars aren’t enough).

Keep in mind: not all of your “safe” options are the “best” options for you. In addition, pay attention to surgeon qualifications for your safety and satisfaction with your results.

Learn more:

• Get the basics on combination surgery safety: read post 1 in this two-part series
• Read the latest on my clinical study of combination procedures
• Take the “mommy makeover” quiz

By: Grant Stevens, MD

If you’re thinking of getting a “mommy makeover” (for instance, a tummy tuck with breast augmentation or breast lift), you may be wondering whether combination procedures are really safe.

Some people have guessed that getting multiple procedures at the same time would make surgery more risky. But in my experience, this just isn’t the case – and I’ve recently published clinical research that proves it.

Combination Surgery Safety: The Essential Facts

The complication risk for plastic surgery in the US is less than 1%, but safety still needs to be your top priority, so if you’re thinking of getting plastic surgery after pregnancy, it’s important that you have the facts.

My study reviewed over 250 cases of patients who received breast surgery and a tummy tuck at my Los Angeles plastic surgery clinic over a period of 10 years. What my colleagues and I found:

• Not one patient experienced life-threatening complications
• Some patients did experience minor complications, but these complications were comparable to the typical complication rates for standalone procedures

The great thing about these study results is not that they show combination surgery eliminates risk entirely (that’s simply not possible) – it’s that patients can be confident that combining breast enhancement and a tummy tuck is a valid, safe option, and won’t add unnecessary worries to the surgical planning and recovery process.

Learn more:

• Read the latest on my clinical study of combination procedures
• Take the “mommy makeover” quiz

By: Mark Deutsch, MD

At my practice we often recommend combining an abdominoplasty (“tummy tuck”) with a mastopexy (“breast lift”), especially for women who have recently given birth. When performed in tandem, these surgeries restore the body’s youthful appearance and enhance self-confidence and self-esteem, and performing both surgeries at once reduces total recovery time and saves the patient money.

Atlanta area mothers looking to restore their bodies after pregnancy should place two cosmetic surgery procedures at the top of their list. Both the “tummy tuck,” or abdominoplasty, and the “breast lift,” or mastopexy, could benefit a woman’s appearance and self-esteem. We will now perform the operations simultaneously, at both our Fayetteville and Atlanta plastic surgery facilities.

The tummy tuck, a tightening of the abdominal muscles and removal of excess skin around the abdomen, can give a patient a flat stomach when weight loss alone has not completely restored a woman’s midsection to its ideal appearance. A breast lift removes excess skin around the breast to alleviate sagging, restore fullness and shapeliness, and bring the nipple back to the correct height.

The best way to obtain both procedures without straining the budget is to visit an Atlanta plastic surgeon who will do them simultaneously. I’m board certified and have the clinical skills and experience to deliver results. The procedures I perform exceed most patients’ expectations.

Combining the operations offers many benefits:

• The patient is anesthetized only once, saving anesthesiology fees.
• The surgeries are done in one day — Atlanta plastic surgeons are heavily booked and are often difficult to schedule.
• Overall recovery time is shorter, which means fewer days off from work.

By: Eric Chang, MD

Many of my Baltimore breast enhancement patients come to me because pregnancy and breastfeeding seem to have given them a flat, less shapely look. But does breastfeeding really make a big difference in how saggy your breasts look after pregnancy?

A recent study aiming to answer that question offers the surprising conclusion that while factors like smoking and a larger pre-pregnancy breast size can dramatically contribute to breast ptosis (sagging), breastfeeding alone does not seem to worsen it.

Unfortunately, while breastfeeding may not cause breasts to sag, the hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy do contribute to breast sagging. Here’s what you need to know:

Know the Facts: How Pregnancy Affects Breast Aesthetics

• During pregnancy the breasts swell with milk, stretching out the skin and surface tissues. Whether or not you choose to breastfeed, and even if the breasts do not lose additional volume after pregnancy, they will generally appear flatter and seem to “point downward,” simply because the skin is no longer supporting the breast mound properly.
• Hormonal fluctuations during and after pregnancy can also affect the quality of your skin, but more noticeably prompt your body to change the ways it stores fat in your breasts (and elsewhere). Many women find that after childbirth they have smaller, very droopy breasts even if they had a much fuller form beforehand. In some cases they will also notice new, diet-resistant pockets of fat in the hips or other problem areas.

Understand the Differences: How to Recognize Which Changes Are Key

Breast lift and / or breast reduction are typical components of mommy makeover cosmetic surgery for Baltimore, Maryland women, but many patients are not sure which procedure is “right” for them. Factors to consider when you examine your breasts and formulate your goals:

• Volume – In some cases, even breasts with good position may look “saggy” if they have lost significant volume, so augmentation alone may be enough to reverse the problem. Alternatively, breasts with good volume sometimes look “flat” because overstretched skin allows the breast tissue to spread out. In this case, a breast lift may be enough to tighten the surface tissues into the appropriate shape, though more often combined augmentation / lift is more effective.
• Nipple position – With a breast lift particularly, a Baltimore area breast enhancement plastic surgeon can often improve the position of the nipple, but in augmentation alone this can be tricky. In most cases, women who need to correct the volume of their breast and the position of the nipple will need a combined augmentation-lift, even if the breast mound itself is only moderately saggy.

By: Camille Cash, MD

As a mother, I understand what it’s like to see your body change after childbirth, but as a plastic surgeon I also know that few women are lucky enough to be able regain their pre-baby look with diet and exercise alone. The rest of us generally need a little help, which is a big reason why procedures like breast enlargement and liposuction in Houston are so popular with moms.

At my Houston plastic surgery offices, I meet with many mothers who want a little help in these areas because they are not seeing satisfying results despite plenty of effort toward “normal” body reshaping methods – but are not sure where to start.

Here are 2 questions to help you find your own answers to what plastic surgery procedures may be right for you:

1 – Which areas have changed – and how – after my pregnancy?

A good plastic surgeon will be able to walk the patient through the process of assessing her shape and exploring her options, but you can prepare for this discussion by looking at how your body has changed over the years.

Key questions:

• What were my trouble spots before pregnancy?
• When I compare photos of me before and after childbirth, which changes do I notice? Which ones seem most important to me?
• What do the family traits that I see in my mother and / or sisters with children suggest about how my post-pregnancy body will continue to change over time?

2 – Which changes most affect my self-confidence and daily life?

For most patients, the “obvious” problem – excess abdominal skin or flat breasts, for example – might be the most important, but personal factors can make a big difference. A woman who had larger, very shapely breasts before pregnancy may place different values on breast enlargement and Houston liposuction than a very athletic woman who has lived most of her life with a perfectly flat tummy.

Key questions:

• Which characteristics do I feel are most important to my identity as a woman?
• Has my new shape changed the way I feel wearing clothes and meeting new people? How?
• Have these changes made me feel more limited in my physical activities?

Your surgeon will have more questions for you, but thinking through your motivations and priorities beforehand will definitely help you plan for more reasonable, focused goals and – ultimately – better results from your Houston plastic surgery.

By: Grant Stevens, MD

Childbearing creates a physical and emotional strain on the body, and while pregnancy has a number of physical benefits, the aftereffects are often visible and even damaging to a woman’s appearance and self-esteem. A growing number of women are turning to plastic surgery after childbirth to correct some of the most obvious and bothersome characteristics through procedures like tummy tuck and Los Angeles breast lift, but many moms forget about one highly important area – the skin.

How Does Pregnancy Affect the Skin?

Rapid chemical changes during pregnancy alter the way a pregnant woman’s body maintains and nourishes the skin, improving the levels of nutrients in the skin to create that pregnancy “glow.” Unfortunately, after childbirth the levels of certain hormones drop significantly – sometimes too far, so that they rob the skin of some of the chemical triggers that prompt it to produce collagen and elastin, the proteins that keep skin looking young and firm.

Many women considering mommy makeover procedures like tummy tuck in Los Angeles do not notice these skin changes as an important cause of their newly “worn-out” look, partly because other changes like loss of breast volume and overstretched abdominal muscles tend to be more obvious. However, most women can benefit from taking a second look at their procedure plan and asking their surgeon whether it makes sense to combine skin treatments with their Los Angeles breast lift or tummy tuck.

How Mommy Makeover Skin Enhancements Work

Laser resurfacing and chemical peels can improve the tone and texture of the skin, minimize the appearance of wrinkles, and stimulate the body to create more collagen and elastin. These procedures are very quick, with minimal if any downtime, and can often dramatically reduce the signs of worry and sleeplessness that typically appear on the faces of new mothers.

A few ways skin enhancements can complement the results of breast and body contouring procedures:

Focus: For most women, there are good reasons sagging breasts or loose abdominal tissues take priority over procedures for the face and skin. At the same time, though, because the delicate tissues of the face, hands, and even the collar area tend to show the first signs of aging, small changes to these areas can dramatically improve a woman’s overall appearance.

Balance: Mommy makeover procedures aim to restore a younger, more attractive form to the body, but balance is essential for good results. Skin treatments help ensure that your face looks as young as your body.

Longevity of Results: Skin-level treatments like chemical peels improve the look of the skin, but they also improve skin health. While most skin treatments are designed for the face, a select few can also improve the health of skin in other areas of the body, creating a tighter, firmer look that enhances the results of liposuction or tummy tuck and can help Los Angeles women minimize the appearance of incision scars over time.

As with any plastic surgery procedure after childbirth, the right approach for you will depend on your unique shape and goals, and on your surgeon’s areas of expertise, so be sure to discuss your options thoroughly with a surgeon you trust, before you undergo a treatment that you are not sure of.