A mommy makeover is a customized combination of cosmetic procedures to correct unwanted changes in a woman’s body after childbearing or weight loss — such as sagging breasts, loss of abdominal muscle tone, and loose skin. Choosing which surgeries to add to your mommy makeover is crucial for restoring your body and pride in your appearance.
Here, I’ll explain your mommy makeover options to help you understand which might be the best choices for you, given the changes in your body. Of course, I will guide you to the final decision by asking questions about your mommy makeover goals and examining you to assess your skin’s resilience before making an expert recommendation.
What Is a Mommy Makeover?
A mommy makeover is not a single treatment. Instead, it’s an umbrella term for procedures that can include improvements to the contours and appearance of the breasts, abdomen, waistline, and other parts of the body. The goal is to reshape your body to be closer to its pre-pregnancy or pre-weight-loss form.
During a mommy makeover, I can tighten and smooth skin that has stretched and sagged and flatten your belly by firming separated, weakened abdominal muscles. I can also reshape and resize your breasts. If you choose, we can restore a younger look to your face or remove unwanted fat from your thighs or upper arms.
Assessing Your Unique Body and Aesthetic Goals: Where Do You Start?
With so many options available, it’s best to start by figuring out your most significant cosmetic needs. Ask yourself what bothers you most about the changes to your body and your appearance.
- Is your abdomen no longer flat and firm?
- Has the skin in your midsection stretched and loosened?
- Do you have sagging or deflated breasts?
- Would you like your breasts to be larger or smaller?
- Are you unhappy with the way the skin on your face has aged?
- Do you struggle with hard-to-lose deposits of excess fat around your waist or in your thighs or upper arms?
The changes to your body and how you feel about them can guide you as you consider what procedures to add to your mommy makeover surgical plan.
Which Procedures Does a Mommy Makeover Typically Include?
While many mommy makeovers include contouring and reshaping the abdomen and breasts, other parts of your body may be of more concern to you. Here’s a quick summary of what your mommy makeover might include.
Breast Procedures
Childbearing, weight loss, and aging cause the breasts to sag. A breast lift can correct this, restoring a younger-looking, rounder, and more uplifted shape.
Breasts can also grow smaller or larger with the changes your body goes through. You might want to use this opportunity to make naturally small breasts larger, or vice versa. Breast augmentation or breast reduction surgery can bring your breasts’ size and shape into better harmony with your other features and enable you to confidently wear your preferred clothing styles.
Body Procedures
The effects of childbearing, weight loss, and aging affect each woman’s body in different ways. For example, perhaps unwanted fat has accumulated in various areas, or your abdomen has lost its firm, smooth, toned appearance.
Liposuction removes stubborn fat pockets almost anywhere on the body, including the waistline, thighs, and upper arms.
A tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty, smooths loose, sagging skin and can flatten your belly by tightening and repairing weakened and separated abdominal muscles.
Face Procedures
You might choose to include one or more cosmetic face or neck procedures as part of your mommy makeover to restore a younger and more attractive look. We can correct loose, sagging, and wrinkled skin with a neck lift, facelift, brow lift, or eyelid surgery. Which facial solution you choose depends on how lax or resilient your skin is, and where the sagging and wrinkling are most noticeable.
A facelift and/or neck lift corrects sagging and wrinkling from below your eyes to your jaw, and can correct a double chin, jowls, and banding on the neck.
A brow lift smooths wrinkles in the forehead and raises sagging eyebrows.
Eyelid surgery gives your face a brighter, more alert appearance by tightening and lifting droopy eyelids and removing fat that can make your eyes look puffy or sleepy.
Combining Mommy Makeover Procedures: What Are the Benefits and Considerations?
While I can perform any of the procedures in a mommy makeover as separate surgeries, combining them allows you to transform yourself and rejuvenate your appearance with only one surgical visit and recovery period. It can also save you some money on various surgical fees like anesthesia.
Of course, it’s not always possible to combine all the procedures you may wish to have. I will consider your safety, the risks of complications, the best way to get optimal results, and your experience in recovery when recommending which procedures to combine and whether to plan on having a follow-up surgery later.
Choosing the Right Surgeon: What Factors Should You Consider?
While choosing which procedures to include in your mommy makeover is crucial, it’s even more paramount to partner with a board-certified plastic surgeon. As a baseline, certification from the American Board of Plastic Surgery is a reliable indicator that the surgeon has the training and experience to practice safely and reliably.
Beyond that, look at examples of the surgeon’s work in before-and-after pictures or actual patients, focusing on the specific procedures you’re considering. Pay attention to customer reviews, too. Then, meet with your chosen surgeon and decide if this is a person who listens to you, explains things clearly, and comes across as a caring person you can trust.
I am a board-certified plastic surgeon with years of experience performing all the surgeries you might wish to include in your mommy makeover. I regularly earn spots on lists of the top doctors and best surgeons in national and New Jersey ratings.
View Dr. Spiro’s Before-and-After Gallery
How Long Does It Take Your Body to Heal From a Mommy Makeover?
Your recovery will depend on which surgeries your mommy makeover includes. Most breast or liposuction procedures require less than a week off work, while most tummy tuck procedures require at least a week, if not longer. You can resume fitness activities in three to six weeks, depending on how quickly you heal.
While some results of a mommy makeover are immediate, the full results may not appear until all residual swelling from the surgery has subsided, which may take three months or longer.
A mommy makeover is among the most transformative options plastic surgery has to offer. Because the choice is so personal, I tailor each mommy makeover to my patients’ specific needs and desires.
Find out how a mommy makeover might improve your appearance and restore younger-looking contours by contacting Spiro Plastic Surgery online or by calling (973) 736-5907 to schedule a consultation with Scott Spiro, M.D.
