For many women, having a baby is one of the most exciting times in their life, but pregnancy can and usually does change your body in ways that no amount of diet or exercise can correct. It is important for women to know what changes have occurred and which ones they can fix by themselves and by their own efforts, and which ones will benefit from other options, such as cosmetic surgery.

The abdomen and breasts are generally the two areas that are more susceptible to significant changes during pregnancy but any area of the body can be affected. Many of the changes that occur with pregnancy can be categorized under the Post-Baby Body Syndrome, which is experienced by many pregnant women.

What became obvious to me, is that many of my patients who come in, believe they are failures because the effort they expended to get rid of the pouch in their abdomen, for example, were to no avail. There can be persistent body changes in a woman after pregnancy and sometimes, no matter what they do in terms of exercise, diet or therapy… those changes persist.

The 3 most common things that working out at the gym can't fix are: stretched skin, stretched muscles and sagging breasts.

Your Stomach:

Stomach muscles lose their tone after pregnancy because both the muscles and skin have stretched to accommodate the baby. When they shrink there may be extra skin remaining after your pregnancy.

When abdominal muscles become stretched and abdominal skin becomes loose, no amount of sit-ups will reposition these muscles, and dieting will not shrink the skin. In many instances only an Abdominoplasty (or a tummy tuck) can repair the changes. By repositioning the muscles, removing excess skin and improving the appearance of the belly button, a tummy tuck can help you improve and regain the shape you had. It is recommended that women considering future pregnancies before deciding to have a tummy tuck procedure.

Your Breasts:

Another common problem for women is during and after pregnancy is sagging breasts or breasts that have lost their shape. This is due to weight fluctuations and hormonal changes. Despite your best efforts, sometimes the excess skin and the ligaments simply will not stretch back to how they were pre-pregnancy. Cosmetic surgery can help restore your breasts to a more youthful appearing shape.

Breast lift vs. Breast Augmentation:

A breast lift will reposition the nipple and lift the breast, and improve the shape without changing the size. A breast augmentation will enlarge the size of the breast, giving you a magnification of what you already have.

In summary, women after pregnancy can generally be divided into two main groups. One group can return their body to normal or near normal with exercise and proper diet.
The other group of women find that despite all efforts - exercise, diet, etc. - the changes that have occurred to their body are permanent, persistent and do not respond to conservative modalities of treatment.

If you are one of the thousands of mothers who have wished for her old body back, or to even just feel "normal" then you owe it to yourself to have a consultation with a board-certified cosmetic surgeon today. The Surgeons at the Avalon Clinic for Cosmetic Surgery specializes in caring for women that have had children. We can help you get your Pre-Baby Body back!