Minimally invasive mommy makeovers
Pregnancy takes a toll on a woman’s body. The selfless act that is motherhood often results in significant changes to the breasts, stomach, and legs of women. Many times these changes occur no matter how healthy mom is; these are natural changes that are minimally affected by following a healthy regimen of diet and exercise either before or after your pregnancy.
The desire of many women to return their bodies back to their pre-pregnancy form has spurred the cosmetic industry to market ‘Mommy Makeovers’: a single-session surgical procedure that combines 2 or more popular plastic surgery procedures such as liposuction, breast augmentation, or tummy tuck surgery.
While mommy makeovers produce dramatic life changing results, they also require a rather lengthy recovery period (typically 2-3 weeks before returning to normal daily activities). For many busy moms this recovery time is simply not feasible.
There are some minimally invasive alternatives that can accomplish similar (though generally not quite as dramatic) results as surgical options to help re-contour a new mother’s body:
Body Contouring: There are many great non-surgical body contouring options currently on the market, each with the power to dramatically enhance the shape of the body with no recovery time. CoolSculpting uses controlled cooling technology to freeze and destroy fat cells. UltraShape is a new body contouring option that uses ultrasound technology to eliminate fat.
If pregnancy has left you with isolated pockets of fat that are highly resistant to diet or exercise CoolSculpting or Ultrashape may be an ideal option for you.
Loose Skin: After losing pregnancy-related weight most moms are left with undesired loose skin. Thermage is a laser based treatment that stimulates the body’s natural production of collagen to contour and tighten the skin.
Cellulite: Effectively treating cellulite is extremely hard. Many of the over-the-counter or infomercial cellulite removal creams are ineffective, and at times dangerous. Avélie and Celfina (new to the market) are currently the only minimally invasive treatments proven to provide long-lasting cellulite removal.
Vein Removal: Many women will find the appearance of spider and varicose veins after pregnancy. Depending on the type of vein and its location there are many great non-surgical vein removal options including endovenous laser treatments and Sclerotherapy.
Laser Hair Removal: It’s not uncommon for women to be left with new body hair in undesired locations after giving birth. Laser hair removal is a safe way to permanently remove unwanted hair around the lip, legs, arms, back, bikini area, and abdomen.
Trudi Bonomi is a Cosmetic Consultant with Westlake Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery. She has been with the practice since 2007. Trudi provides personal consultations with patients regarding breast augmentation, liposuction, facelift, and many other plastic surgery and laser procedures.
Very interesting, I though surgery was really the only option
Hi Carmen, thanks for reading our post! Surgical mommy makeovers are definitely more common and will often produced more dramatic results. However, there are instances where non-surgical options can be just as effective and produce a great result!