Guide:
- Should I Include Liposuction In My Mommy Makeover?
- What Other Treatments Can A Mommy Makeover Include?
- Tummy Tuck vs. Liposuction
- Why Include Liposuction In A Mommy Makeover?
- Recovery After Mommy Makeover With Liposuction
- Considering Mommy Makeover With Liposuction?
If you have multiple concerns with your body after having children or even after years of experiencing gravity’s effects through aging, a mommy makeover may be the procedure for you. The mommy makeover aims to restore the body for women who have gone through pregnancy and breastfeeding, but it is not limited to mothers. It can also be considered a general rejuvenation treatment.
The mommy makeover is a customizable surgery that allows you to choose multiple procedures to combine into one to address all of your concerns at once. With a mommy makeover, there’s no need to decide which issue you want to address first or undergo multiple procedures over time. You can get it all in one surgery, with only one use of anesthesia, followed by just one recovery period.
While a mommy makeover is suited to fit the patient’s unique needs, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons says it generally starts with breast surgery and an abdomen contouring procedure, with additional treatments added to that foundation as needed.
Should I Include Liposuction In My Mommy Makeover?
When you have some extra “flab” or stubborn pockets of flat left over after having kids, liposuction is excellent to include in your mommy makeover. We typically recommend liposuction to patients with subcutaneous fat pockets causing love handles, back rolls, and belly fat.
By removing excess fat from specific areas of the body, liposuction allows mothers to get rid of fat in unwanted areas and keep it in the areas that show off their “hourglass” curves.
It’s important to note that even with liposuction included, you should be at or very close to your ideal weight before your mommy makeover because no plastic surgery is a weight loss treatment. Liposuction can help round off your weight loss results by targeting the pesky pockets of fat that linger after you lose weight through diet and exercise. Learn more on our blog, Do I Need To Lose Weight Before A Mommy Makeover?
What Other Treatments Can A Mommy Makeover Include?
As the breasts and abdomen are the areas of a woman’s body most affected by pregnancy and breastfeeding, the mommy makeover typically centers around restoring the contours of these features.
Breast Surgery
Pregnancy and breastfeeding cause the breasts to enlarge temporarily, but if they revert to their usual size after a woman has completed breastfeeding, it can cause the breasts to appear “deflated” and droopy.
Breast procedures commonly incorporated in mommy makeovers include breast lifts and breast augmentations. Often, women opt for both by adding implants to a breast lift to restore both volume and position. Other women may consider breast reduction if their breasts remain uncomfortably large after breastfeeding.
Tummy Tuck
The most common procedure to include in mommy makeover surgery is the tummy tuck, as pregnancy leaves women with stretched abdominal muscles and loose, excess skin around the abdomen. According to the Mayo Clinic, the tummy tuck, also known as abdominoplasty, removes excess skin and fat from the abdomen before redraping it back over repositioned underlying muscles to create a flatter, smoother, more toned look.
In more extreme cases of excess skin and fat in the midsection, Dr. Liland may recommend an extended abdominoplasty. For patients wanting a dramatic improvement, circumferential abdominoplasty may be more suitable.
An extended tummy tuck addresses the same areas as the standard surgery with contouring of the flanks and hips and sometimes contouring of the outer thighs. A circumferential abdominoplasty addresses everything in the extended tummy tuck but removes lower back skin and occasionally lifts the buttocks.
Other treatments added to a mommy makeover may include:
Tummy Tuck vs. Liposuction
Most women opt to get a tummy tuck and liposuction during their mommy makeover, so it’s not necessarily a decision of one or the other if you’re concerned with excess skin and stubborn fat.
While tummy tuck is excellent for removing excess skin from the midsection and tightening loose or separated abdominal muscles after they’ve stretched with pregnancy and childbirth, it is not a fat loss treatment alone.
On the other hand, liposuction is excellent for getting rid of stubborn fat that just won’t go away despite diet and exercise. It is not a treatment for tightening loose skin or restoring the underlying muscles. During mommy makeovers, Dr. Liland most commonly uses liposuction to target the abdomen, flanks, lower back, and arms, but some patients opt for some inner thigh lipo as well.
A mommy makeover consisting of a tummy tuck and liposuction allows the simultaneous removal of stubborn, exercise and diet-resistant fat, the reduction and tightening of loose skin, and the repairing of underlying muscles, with one recovery period.
Liposuction and abdominoplasty are the ultimate body rejuvenation combination as they address excess skin and fat in the tummy, including pockets of stubborn fat in the surrounding areas, such as the love handles.
Why Include Liposuction In A Mommy Makeover?
The benefits of choosing liposuction as one of your mommy makeover procedures include:
- Removes stubborn fat to tighten and contour the midsection and highlight the waist-to-hip ratio
- Maximizes your body contouring results for one procedure
- Eliminates not only stubborn hanging skin but also annoying fat pockets with just one surgery and one recovery
- Permanently removes fat cells safely
- Addresses fat pockets that are resistant to diet and exercise
- Adds minimal scarring to a mommy makeover
- Helping clothes fit better by creating a smoother body shape
Recovery After Mommy Makeover With Liposuction
Most patients recover fully from a mommy makeover with the traditional combination of liposuction, tummy tuck, and breast contouring after about 4-6 weeks. Healing will continue for several weeks before final results show as the swelling gradually decreases and your newly contoured body shape settles in.
We recommend wearing a compression garment to control swelling and to support your results from liposuction and abdominoplasty, as well as a supportive bra for your breasts to heal after a lift or augmentation.
You can resume light walking for exercise about four weeks after your mommy makeover with liposuction. However, it is better to wait 6-8 weeks, or as directed by your surgeon, to get back into more strenuous cardio and weight lifting.
Learn more about mommy makeover recovery in our blog, Mommy Makeover Recovery In Dallas.
Considering Mommy Makeover With Liposuction?
If you’re ready to address stubborn fat, excess skin, muscle laxity, and sagging skin after pregnancy and breastfeeding, it’s time to schedule a mommy makeover consultation. Book a consultation with Dallas plastic surgeon Dr. David Liland today to see if liposuction is an ideal option to include in your post-baby rejuvenation surgery.