Breasts, Belly, and Down Below
– A Complete Mommy Makeover
Surgery
A mommy makeover aims to restore common changes to the breasts and abdomen after child-bearing. Classically, the breasts droop and become deflated and the abdomen has redundant skin, stretch marks, and separation of the central muscles. Mommy makeovers generally include a breast lift, a tummy tuck, and maybe even liposuction. An often over-looked area of change with child bearing is in the female genital region and Dr. Hustak considers female genital rejuvenation an important component of the mommy makeover. Dr. Hustak can tailor mommy makeover procedures to fit your individual needs and goals. Every women’s body is unique, as is their changes associated with pregnancy, so the mommy makeover can be tailored to fit your unique needs.
Breast Procedures
Many women lose volume in their breasts. Often this is most dramatic following breastfeeding but can also happen to a degree with weight changes even in women that did not choose to breastfeed. This is a common response to hormonal changes. In the lucky minority, your breast skin will shrink back and not droop, which can make breast augmentation alone a good option to replenish the loss of volume and increase or restore your pre-pregnancy breast size.
Unfortunately, most women end up with extra skin when the breast glandular tissue deflates after breast feeding. The leads to your breasts drooping (breast ptosis) as your nipples have moved to a lower position on your breasts. In this situation, Dr. Hustak recommends a breast lift (mastopexy) with or without a breast augmentation, depending on your goals for volume. Breast lifts can also make your areolae smaller (the dark part around your projected nipple) as this often gets stretched with the breast shape and size changes. A breast lift +/- breast augmentation is one of the most commonly performed post-pregnancy procedures.
The purpose of a breast lift (mastopexy) is to correct droopy breasts (breast ptosis), improve the shape of your breasts, and downsize your nipple-areolar complex while moving it higher on your breast and chest wall.
There are a variety of techniques to accomplish this depending on your current breast shape and volume. The scar pattern from the surgery varies on the technique needed. Most commonly, the scar resulting is in an anchor shape and fades nicely over time. Although the scar is often large, most women find the improvement in shape well worth the trade off of having a scar.
Tummy Procedures
The other area of your body commonly affected by pregnancy is the abdomen. Classically, there is excess skin in the lower abdomen as well separation of your underlying central six-pack muscles. This requires a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) to correct.
Separation of the six pack muscles during pregnancy is necessary to accommodate the growth of your baby. This same phenomenon happens with large weight shifts as well. These muscles don’t always return back to the center with weight loss. When they separate (diasthesis recti), this can destroy the girdle effect these muscles are supposed to have on your lower abdomen and no matter how many crunches you do or how much you diet, they will never return to pre-pregnancy position and you will likely always have a small bulge in the region from their separation. This can be corrected surgically by placing stitches in the muscles to bring them back together in the center. This will be done at the same time excess skin is removed with the tummy tuck. On some occasions, liposuction will be done at the same time to the sides of your abdomen to improve the contour.
Liposuction alone will not correct excess skin nor muscle separation-both components that are almost always present with post-pregnancy bodies. As such, liposuction alone to the abdomen is almost never performed as part of the mommy makeover.
Vaginal Rejuvenation
The term vaginal rejuvenation covers several different procedures. It is sometimes called female genital plastic surgery, female genital rejuvenation surgery, female genital cosmetic surgery, vulvovaginal plastic surgery and designer vagina surgery, among other terms. Among the procedures that comprise female genital plastic surgery are labiaplasty, clitoral hood reduction, labia majoraplasty, monsplasty and vaginoplasty. Before discussing each one, it is important to look at the anatomy.
Patients may have one to two weeks of down time. They may feel a deep ache for the first few days, and there is no tampon use or intercourse for eight weeks. Depending on the amount of tightening performed, some patients may be instructed to use dilators.
Mommy makeover procedures are as diverse as the patients who benefit from them, so it is important that you seek consultation from a surgeon who has completed a rigorous plastic surgery training program and is board eligible or board certified by the American Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
A confident and content mommy is one that benefits the entire family.
Labiaplasty, plastic surgery on the labia (the “lips” surrounding the vagina), can be performed alone or with vaginoplasty. Surgery can be performed on the labia major (the larger, outer vaginal lips), or the labia minor (the smaller, inner vaginal lips). Labiaplasty changes the size or shape of the labia, typically making them smaller or correcting an asymmetry between them.
Vaginoplasty is a procedure that aims to “tighten up” a vagina that’s become slack or loose from vaginal childbirth or aging. Some surgeons claim it can even improve sensitivity — a claim the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has strongly challenged.
While it’s true that vaginal tissues can stretch, surgically tightening the vaginal tissue in itself cannot guarantee a heightened sexual response, since desire, arousal, and orgasm are complex, highly personal responses, conditioned as much by emotional, spiritual, and interpersonal factors as aesthetic ones. In addition, sexual “sensitivity” doesn’t automatically lead to more pleasure – it can actually lead to pain.
