Mommy Makeover

What a mommy makeover is built from

A mommy makeover is the combination this page uses to rejuvenate the post-pregnancy abdomen and breasts in one plan, while keeping a natural look. The opening spelling is SurgiSculpt. Later answers spell the same name SurgiScuplt. Newport Beach and Orange County are the places named for that plan.

The core plan is a tummy tuck with breast augmentation, with or without a breast lift, plus liposuction of the back, flanks, and thighs. Breast choices later expand to a lift alone, augmentation alone, a lift with an implant, or a reduction. The abdomen is a full or a mini tuck, chosen by skin redundancy and abdominal-wall integrity. Fat moved to the buttock and hip is called a Brazilian butt lift, using high definition liposuction protocols.

The Umbilicator sets an innie that can be shown in a two-piece without an operated look. Stretched or torn abdominal muscle with moderate to severe bulging is repaired above and below the belly button separately: a gentle concave curve above and a gentle convex curve below. Partial insurance is mentioned only for an actual muscle tear. Full coverage is not claimed.

Back and flank contour uses VASER liposuction and Renuvion. VASER is the gold standard because ultrasound melts fat before removal. Renuvion shrinks collagen under and in the skin so it can tighten without a cut. With an implant, the breast operation is first, then the tuck and liposuction of the flanks, abdomen, and legs. Liposuction also smooths the waist, thighs, and hips.

How long a mommy makeover takes

One line gives 4 to 6 hours. The risk section gives four to eight hours for the combined breast and tummy operation. A later line gives approximately 3 to 6 hours for augmentation and/or a lift, plus a tuck, plus flank and thigh liposuction. Inside that last range, a mini tuck with augmentation is 3 hours, and a full tuck with a breast lift is 6 hours. Those clocks belong to a mommy makeover. They are not averaged.

General anesthesia is routinely used. The room is an outpatient surgical suite or an in-office operating room. The patient goes home, or to a chosen facility, the same day. A Recovery Retreat offers 24 hour care by a registered nurse.

Breast feelings that are not filed as complications

Side effects are called tolerable and often temporary, and they are not labeled adverse events. Breast and nipple numbness from swelling lasts the first several weeks and should last no longer than a few months. It can last longer if a sensory nerve is injured.

• A hypertrophic breast scar is thickened. Treatment is a steroid injection, laser, and silicone pressure. No dose is given.
• Size, shape, and nipple position can still differ a little, and should differ less than before surgery.
• Nursing is typically unaffected because the milk glands stay attached to the nipple. Patients are still advised not to expect to breastfeed if they have more children.
• Implants often sit high and drop within 2 to 4 weeks. A breast band is worn for approximately 2 to 4 weeks.
• A thin capsule is normal. A thick capsule is capsular contracture and can distort the breast. It is rare with saline and minimally observed with new-generation silicone.
• Deflation is 1 percent per year, so 10 percent over 10 years.

Abdominal feelings, then the events called risks

Tummy numbness is called inevitable because sensory nerves in the muscle are cut when skin and fat are lifted off. Sensation returns on average by one year. That year is not the breast numbness window of several weeks to a few months.

A thick abdominal scar can feel tight after a large skin removal. Redness fades on average in 3 to 6 months with steroid injection, laser, and silicone pressure. Uneven fat in the kept skin can leave contour irregularities. Liposuction during the tuck stays conservative so the skin is not devitalized. The contour should still be better than it was.

A breast hematoma is early blood that can grow bacteria from an infection elsewhere, open the incision, and compromise skin. A breast seroma is plasma after lymphatic disruption, more likely with a low blood count or low protein, and it may need several aspirations. Breast infection needs prolonged antibiotics. An implant raises that risk slightly as a foreign body, so antibiotics start before surgery. The risk is lower with no smoking, or after quitting for at least one month.

Nicotine constricts the small skin vessels on the breast account and clogs them on the abdomen. Both operations require at least one month without cigarettes. Uncontrolled diabetes can slough skin. An open breast wound needs prolonged antibiotics and dressings. An open abdominal wound is prolonged dressings, and that account does not add antibiotics. Shape asymmetry is not size asymmetry. Pockets dissected too far toward the middle can join, which is symmastia.

Pneumothorax, a puncture of the lung lining, is rare and tied to an implant under the pectoralis, a few millimeters from that lining. Repair is a catheter into the lung cavity, a seal, overnight hospitalization, and catheter removal the next day.

Deep vein thrombosis can form in the legs right after surgery on both the breast list and the abdominal list. A clot that reaches the lungs is a pulmonary embolus and also pulmonary emboli. It is rare and the leading cause of death after surgery. Precautions are boots during surgery and walking as soon as possible.

An abdominal hematoma is limited with drains, usually kept 1 to 2 weeks. The breast list gives no drain duration. An abdominal seroma is plasma after the soft tissue is lifted. Drains are said to prevent it, and it may appear if a drain comes out too early. It can need several aspirations. Abdominal infection is tied to the drains, because they limit hematoma, and to quitting cigarettes for at least one month.

Uneven redundant skin should improve with redraping, trimming, and repair. Stretch marks have lost elasticity and can re-stretch, so the surgeon tries to remove as many as possible. Marks left unevenly, more on one side, can re-stretch unevenly. A remaining contour difference is usually repaired with a revision mini tummy tuck.

Recovery after a mommy makeover

One range is two to six weeks. Walking starts the day after, not at the usual pace, semi-flexed. By the end of week 1, walking is upright and chores return, except driving. About two weeks is off pain medication and able to drive. Work returns after two to three weeks, and that also depends on mini versus full. A complete routine is about four weeks. Vigorous exercise waits about six weeks.

A later account calls full recovery four to six weeks, not two to six, and usual exercise about four weeks. It still includes the day-after walk, week-1 chores without driving, driving at two weeks, and work at two to three weeks, without the mini-versus-full condition. A third account holds all exercise and strenuous activity for one month.

With an implant, the pectoralis is avoided for the first four weeks, also written as no heavy lifting of small children for one month. Help at home is one week after a mini tuck and two weeks after a full tuck. Daily activity returns once pain pills stop, inside those limits. Time off planned at consultation is two to four weeks, wider than the two to three week return.

How long a mommy makeover result is said to last

Diet, activity, and no later pregnancy are said to give a lifetime of abdominal, breast, back, thigh, and buttock contour. Avoid moderate to extensive weight gain or loss. Some patients keep stable breast volume and a permanent end to baby weight. A later pregnancy can still stretch the muscles and need a revision. Lift patients may not breastfeed again. A later pregnancy is still called infrequent.

How the breast operation is chosen

The breast choice inside a mommy makeover uses redundant skin, nipple and areola droop, and upper-pole deflation. Minimal redundancy and droop mean augmentation only: the implant takes up slack, corrects at most 1.0 cm of nipple and areola droop, fills the upper pole, and accents medial cleavage. Moderate redundancy and droop mean a lift. Add moderate to severe deflation and the plan is a lift plus an implant. Rarely, severe droop with only moderate upper-pole loss is a lift first, then augmentation three months later.

Breastfeeding mothers are asked to wait three months after breastfeeding so the milk glands and ducts return to their pre-pregnancy size. That wait is for judging size, deflation, and sagging. It is not the 2 to 4 week implant drop, and it is not the three months between a staged lift and a later implant.

A vertical lift, around the areola and down, is for minimal sagging and for patients who also need an implant. An anchor adds a longer inframammary line for moderate to severe sagging. The abdominal line sits in the infra-abdominal crease, also spelled infra-abdomimal, hidden under underwear, with length compared to hemming a skirt. A full tuck adds a belly-button line. Markings are made in a favorite undergarment or bikini buttom.

Scars after a mommy makeover go from reddish to pink, then blend, and may be nearly invisible depending on pigmentation. They are generally fine lines. Topical silicone gel is used for one month. Intense pulsed light is considered if redness lasts. Silicone sheets, used for decades, are taped on daily, expensive, and replaced when they lose their stick. A newer ointment is called superior because it does not fall off and, in theory, penetrates better.

The visit, the spelling, and who is offered a mommy makeover

Candidates are women who have finished childbearing and breastfeeding. Another line says the operations can follow the last child's birth, because the goal is to erase third-trimester stretch and the deflation and sagging after breastfeeding. The breasts are also said to enlarge in the third term. Third term and last trimester both remain.

SurgiScuplt discusses goals, explains the operations, examines the patient, and helps choose the procedures. Photographs of earlier patients are reviewed, then a complimentary quote. Operating together depends on the history, labs, and an EKG if indicated, with a board-certified anesthesiologist. Risk factors mean a mommy makeover may be split and staged. Risks named are infection, bleeding, incision scarring, contour abnormalities, and, with an implant, capsular contracture and deflation. The surgeon is booked out over one month, so the visit is at least six weeks ahead. Preoperative clearance is spelled cleareance.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons says the goal of a mommy makeover is to restore the shape and appearance of a woman's body after childbearing. Breast augmentation, breast lift, liposuction, and tummy tuck are on that list and match this menu. It calls the combination typically a single stage. This page stages it for risk factors, and rarely stages the lift and the implant three months apart. Labiaplasty and genitalia are on that list and not on this page. Hour ranges, the Umbilicator, the 1.0 cm limit, yearly deflation, the smoking month, drain weeks, and the SurgiScuplt spelling are not from that description.