Mommy Makeover: Your Questions Answered

Plastic Surgery Center at Summit Medical Group

Frequently Asked Questions: Mommy Makeover 1. What is a Mommy Makeover?

A mommy makeover procedure is a combination of two or more steps taken to restore a woman’s youthful body shape and to undo some of the changes that naturally happen after pregnancy and child birth. Over their natural course of aging, women go through many stages, including young adulthood, pregnancy, motherhood, and beyond. We as a society cherish the joys of pregnancy and motherhood, but many also wish that they could restore the shape of their breasts, trunk, and lower body to that which they enjoyed before pregnancy, and mommy makeover procedures are designed to do exactly that.

2. What are the most common procedures performed on a Mommy Makeover?

A mommy makeover a customized set of procedures for each patient. Some patients need the breasts addressed, some the abdomen or love handles, and other the buttocks and thighs.

Common procedures for the breasts may include breast reduction, breast lift, or breast augmentation. For the abdomen, liposuction contouring, mini-tummy tucks, and full tummy tucks can be considered. The buttocks can be treated with Brazilian butt lift and the thighs with thigh lifting. Increasingly, women also request labiaplasty procedures, although this is a very personal choice.

3. Can a mini tummy tuck, a breast augmentation and a liposuction be performed in one surgery?

As long as the length of surgery and the risks are managed by the surgeon, it is absolutely possible to combine many of these surgeries into one, so that the results can be achieved faster.

It’s very common to have breast augmentation and tummy tuck together, or breast lift and liposuction of the love handles.

4. What is the minimum recovery time for a Mommy Makeover?

Different patients naturally recover at different rates. Recovery time depends on the number of procedures that the patient needs, and the extent of those procedures. A very short recovery could be for a combination of breast augmentation and love handle liposuction, typically about 1 week. A more comprehensive procedure, such as breast lift, tummy tuck, and buttock enhancement might need 3-6 weeks to recover from.

5. What are the most common complications seen with mommy makeover?

Managing and reducing the chance of complications is very important in performing mommy makeovers. With any surgical procedure, complications such as infection, scarring, blood clots, losing some feeling in the skin, and differences between the two sides are possible. At the Plastic Surgery Center, we take great care to address each one of these possibilities head on and to try to minimize their chance with the latest techniques.

6. What is the best way to prepare for a Mommy Makeover?

The best preparation is to do research, meet with a board-certified plastic surgeon (American Board of Plastic Surgery, not a sound-alike unofficial Board), and to discuss your goals and expectation to see what procedure combination you are a good candidate for.

7. If I’m planning to have more kids, should I wait to have a Mommy Makeover?

It’s best to wait to do the abdominoplasty part of the Mommy Makeover until after childbearing is finished, but breast procedures and liposuction contouring and shaping procedures can be done in the meantime.

8. How severe is the pain after a Mommy Makeover?

Most women need pain medications for the first week, but we use special techniques, such as

Exparel and OnQ pain pumps to reduce the need for those pain medications. In the majority of cases, patients stop prescription medications after 1 week and are able to take Tylenol.

9. How long before I can see results?

Much of the results are immediately noticeable upon the first post-op visit, but it takes 2-3 weeks for bruising to go away, and 6-8 weeks for the tissues to settle in and look close to normal. Altogether, the incisions continue to improve on average for 1-2 years.

10. What type of scarring should be expected after a Mommy Makeover?

There may be incisions on the breasts, abdomen, and sometimes elsewhere, depending on the choice of procedures. In most cases, scars improve and fade over time to a faint line, but some patient’s bodies tend to make severe scars, and in those cases, the patient and plastic surgeons will have to work on improving them.

11. How much time should I plan on taking off for a Mommy Makeover?

Most patients need 3-4 weeks off after procedures involving tummy-tuck, but for less intense procedures, it’s possible sometimes to get away with 2-3 weeks of time-off. Since the procedure is customized, recovery time can vary from one patient to another.