How Soon After Delivering Can I Get A Mommy Makeover?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am finished having children and my body is a wreck. I have tried to get back close to my pre-pregancy body, but it is not happening. I want to have a Mommy Makeover procedure but my husband says I am just not working at it hard enough. When is a good age to have it done?

A: The effects that pregancy has on a woman’s body are largely irreversible by natural efforts for many women. Loose or separated abdominal muscles (rectus diastasis) can not be made to fuse back together by any amount of abdominal situps. Abdominal skin that has been stretched out and partially torn (stretch marks) can not have elasticity restored by situps, creams or weight loss. Breasts that have lost volume and sag can not be lifted up by chest exercises or alleged skin tightening creams. The onething a women can do is lose her pregnancy weight but all other changes require outside help

A so-called Mommy Makeover procedure, which combines breast augmentation with or without a lift and some form of a tummy tuck with or without liposuction, can be done at almost any age. But, by far, the majority of these procedures are done between the ages of 35 to 50. This is an age range where women are done having children and have proven to themselves that diet and exercise just can’t get the body improvement they desire. But age alone is not the only criteria. As long as one is finished breastfeeding, a Mommy Makeover can be done as soon as three to six months after one’s last pregancy.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana