Abdominoplasty before pregnancy

There are many factors that can cause the unsightly appearance of the abdomen, and among them are pregnancy and the natural aging process. During pregnancy, the body changes to accommodate the new life growing inside it, and the most affected features are the breasts and the tummy. Due to the increasing size of the growing uterus, the muscles of the abdominal wall can become distended, and this can leave the patient with an unaesthetic tummy after childbirth. Even if the patient can lose all the baby weight after childbirth, if diastasis recti is present, the tummy will still look saggy and not very firm and flat. This is the reason why many plastic surgeons will recommend the tummy tuck surgery to patients who had one or multiple pregnancies. But how about getting an abdominoplasty before pregnancy?

The first step towards getting the tummy of your dreams is the pre-operative consultation with the plastic surgeon. During this meeting you will get a chance to ask the questions on your mind as well as have a medical examination performed on you. As a result, you will get a recommendation for what is the suitable procedure to help achieve your goals. Aside from these, the plastic surgeon will need to make sure you understand the details of the procedure, how to properly prepare, and what to expect. One of the questions that your plastic surgeon will ask during the consultation is about whether you plan to get pregnant again in the future.

Generally speaking, most plastic surgeons will advise you to postpone the tummy tuck surgery until you are done having children as this is how you will manage to sustain the results of the procedure for longer. If a pregnancy occurs after the tummy tuck, the beautiful appearance of the tummy achieved with the abdominoplasty can be altered and additional procedures might be necessary. However, if we are talking about a patient who was obese or overweight and managed to lose the excess weight and now wants to undergo an abdominoplasty, the plastic surgeon might advise her to go on with the procedure, even if the patient plans to have more children in the future. There is no medical contraindication for a pregnancy following a tummy tuck surgery. The only risk of getting pregnant after undergoing plastic surgery is altering the effects of the surgery.

Patients undergoing the tummy tuck surgery will be advised to avoid an ulterior pregnancy for at least a year or two post-op. Abdominoplasty entails an incision that can take up to one year to finish the cicatrization process. This is why it is important to avoid a pregnancy until the results of the surgery are final and the scars have fully healed and matured. Abdominoplasty can be performed before pregnancy, but make sure to discuss this with the plastic surgeon during the initial consultation.drhourglass