Mummy Makeover NZ

The Mummy Makeover (aka The M2 Procedure).

It is widely regarded as true that for most women, gender equality and women’s lib notwithstanding, pregnancy and motherhood, are their lifetime’s crowning achievement.

While a planned pregnancy is certainly a wonderful time in a woman’s life, no one can deny that there are downsides like swollen ankles, an aching back, chronic tiredness, urinary frequency and the inevitable exchange of a once firm and compact pre-pregnancy body for…something else.

There are compensations however;  your baby is a tiny, brand new human, a living embodiment of your love and he or she will be the focus of your every maternal instincts for the foreseeable future. So what, you say? Well here’s the catch – modern motherhood demands that you focus almost exclusively on the needs of your child (or worse, children) to the exclusion of your own needs. Now factor in the demands of a job, of running a home, and of keeping a relationship going and there’s not much time left over in which to take care of yourself. In short, motherhood means near-total loss of “me-time”.

When you do finally manage to get your head above water, you may note that the figure you were once reasonably proud of ( or at least not disgusted with) has indeed suffered at the hands of your baby(ies).

This is where Mummy makeovers come in: they are a suite of Plastic Surgery Auckland surgical procedures designed to help restore your confidence, by doing something just for you. Not your partner, not your kids, you.

Many women report that while pregnancy and motherhood are wonderful, they also brought along a sense of loss of control and personal identity, not to mention loss of self-confidence. Undoing some of the ravages of pregnancy and childbirth seeks to give you back the confidence you lost when motherhood took that cute pre-pregnancy figure and gave you deflated, sagging breasts and a stretch-marked, poochy belly that no amount of yoga or gym work seems able to shift, in exchange.

Mummy makeovers may be a simple or as complex as you would like.  There is no one procedure that is suitable for all and each woman will have her own priorities she would like to have addressed when considering surgical solutions to her post-baby body problems.

For some women, the biggest concern following a pregnancy is simply a degree of weight gain. For these women, liposuction, especially if the weight is in localized areas such as the hips or lower belly, may be all that is required. The results are likely to be better if one is younger (say below 30), because the skin is more elastic and is able to “take up” the slack created by the loss of underlying volume.

For many women, the biggest drawback to motherhood is the inevitable involution of the breasts after stopping breastfeeding (or, for that matter, just after delivery of the infant, even if they never breastfed). Typically, during pregnancy, the breasts enlarge as the milk-producing glandular component increases. This causes the elastic components of the breast – the skin and the supportive Cooper’s ligaments, to stretch. When breastfeeding stops, the glands involute or shrink and the breast becomes deflated and saggy, which in some women may be quite severe and be the cause of considerable anguish.

Fortunately, breast restoration can be approached in several ways:

1. by replacement of the lost volume, (breast augmentation, either with silicone implants or your own fat, or a combination of the two – a so-called hybrid augmentation), or,
2. by lifting the breast and tightening the skin envelope (a breast lift or mastopexy),

• or a combination of the two procedures, called a breast augmentation mastopexy.

For women with larger breasts, cessation of breast feeding can result in excessive droopiness, a condition termed ptosis and such women will benefit from a reduction mastopexy, often coupled with some liposuction. Again, there are many options and each procedure is tailored to the exact needs of the individual – there is no “one size fits all” solution.

The other major area of concern following a pregnancy, is usually the lower abdomen where the vertical strap muscles, the rectus abdomini, have been over-extended and separated and the abdominal wall stretched around the pregnant belly.  Here a variety of abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck procedures can be performed, with or without tailoring liposuction. Most such techniques will have in common the tightening-up of the abdominal wall structures, correction of the separation of the rectus muscles, repair of any umbilical or peri-umbilical hernia and removal of excess skin. It is possible to completely remove all the stretch marks located between the pubis and the navel, although usually not those higher up on the abdomen.

Finally, many women feel that the birth canal has been stretched and remains lax and the labia minora enlarged by their delivery(ies). Nowadays, it is not uncommon, to perform a labiaplasty ( trimming and tidying up of overly lengthened labia minora) and, if so desired, a vaginoplasty ( tightening of the back wall of the vagina),, either as stand-alone procedures, or in combination with breast and abdominal surgery, as part of a more generalised mummy makeover.

Depending on what your area(s) of concern is or are, any combination of these procedures can be done together in one operation, thus allowing one recovery period. . Recovery is usually trouble-free and in most cases a matter of weeks rather than months. Most women , even those having multiple M2 procedures, are back at work 2-3 weeks after surgery, with a new air of confidence and sense of achievement. And this has spin-offs for the baby and the partner too, because a happy mum makes for a happier household.

If you would like to discuss the pros and cons of an M2 for yourself, please do come in and have a chat. You owe it to yourself to get the facts and it may just give you that boost you’ve been looking for. Don’t delay, call today.