One of the most important events in a woman’s life is when she discovers she is expecting a baby. As the baby grows larger over time, the uterus expands more than tenfold, which must also be accommodated by the abdominal muscles and the skin of the abdomen. If you consider this at the time of conception and, with exercise and abdominal muscle training, prepared your body for pregnancy in this way, then the trained abdominal muscle will regenerate more easily, reducing the chances of the belly sagging. It is important to take time to exercise regularly during your pregnancy, eat healthily, and avoid a large amount of weight gain.
Even if we feel that we have done everything we can to ensure a healthy pregnancy and a carefree childbirth, many women still have the problem of a lax, stretched belly, post-pregnancy, after the mother has regained her ideal pre-pregnancy weight.
What problems can a tummy tuck provide a solution to?
- Damage to the abdominal muscles is not uncommon during pregnancy. The most common reason for this is their inability to follow uterine growth, or the expectant mother is overweight, perhaps the baby is large, or there is a twin pregnancy.
- The connecting fibers between the two straight abdominal muscles are elongated and thinned, until eventually only a hair-thin layer holds them together. In this condition, the muscles cannot always hold the belly properly and the abdominal cavity bulges forward, making it easier to develop a hernia.
- In most cases, stretched skin after pregnancy unfortunately does not recede following external treatment and active exercise, and often the skin hangs loosely, almost covering the pubic bone area.
- Scar correction surgery for women who have had a previous caesarean section with a vertical incision, can be combined with a tummy tuck.
During the surgery, our plastic surgeon makes a horizontal incision along the so-called bikini line from one hip towards the other, passing under the navel. They then excise the excess skin and adipose tissue, unite the elongated, parted abdominal muscles, and fix the navel in its original anatomical position. However, before surgery, it is important for the mother to reach her ideal weight, and to regain, as closely as possible, her pre-pregnancy weight. This is important to prevent the abdominal skin from sagging again and to ensure that a successful surgical outcome is maintained. A tummy tuck can usually take place 6 months after the end of breastfeeding because the body requires that amount of time to regenerate.
This is good news for new moms, those who have given birth to more than one child, or for whom the skin of the abdomen was not flexible enough to retract properly due to age, as well as for those whose cesarean section did not work out so well. In such cases a tummy tuck is an excellent solution, and you can confidently wear a bikini or tighter T-shirts again, and happily bid farewell to loose clothing.
