Tummy tuck to fix loose abdominal muscles

Tummy tuck to fix loose abdominal muscles

 

After one or multiple pregnancies, many women struggle to get back the beautiful appearance of their abdominal area. Some women complain that even months after giving birth, their tummy still looks like they are still pregnant. Despite losing the baby weight and keeping fit and active, the appearance of the tummy can be unpleasant even months and years after childbirth. Many women don’t understand how this can happen. In many of these cases, the answer is diastasis recti.

 

So, what is diastasis recti? This is a condition that affects the abdominal muscles. To get a better idea of what muscles we are talking about here, just imagine a six-pack. These are the muscles that go from the suprapubic area up until the rib cage. Each muscle is contained in a fascial cover. The covers get in contact with one another on the median line, creating the linea alba. This fiber fascial element is of major importance in the stability and functionality of the abdominal wall.

 

Due to the growing size of the uterus during pregnancy, these two muscles often get distended from each other. The linea alba is getting wider and changes into a fibrous band with a low resistance, determining the relaxation of the abdominal wall and its protuberance.  

 

Does this mean that all women who gave birth are confronted with diastasis recti? No, this is not the case. Moreover, it can also happen for a woman to have a pregnancy and not get loose abdominal muscles and for diastasis recti to occur only during the second or third pregnancy. The abdominal wall is greatly stretched during pregnancy and loses elasticity and finds it impossible to get back to shape after giving birth. In a vast majority of cases, the loose tummy is also associated with a certain level of excess fat on the tummy and/or the flanks, along with skin sagginess on the inferior part of the tummy.

 

The tummy tuck is the recommended surgical procedure to fix loose abdominal muscles. The diagnosis of diastasis recti will be verified by the plastic surgeon during the pre-operative consultation, and he will also create the surgical plan to correct the imperfections and make the tummy firm and flat again.

 

When the tummy tuck is performed on a patient with diastasis recti, the plastic surgeon will make an incision on the suprapubic area and then detach the skin and fat from the muscles of the abdomen. The muscles will be brought and kept together with sutures and the surgeon will re-drape the skin on the tummy and remove the excess tissue.

 

If you have been struggling with a protruding tummy after giving birth, chances are the condition won’t improve by itself and plastic surgery is required to regain the beautiful appearance of the tummy. Schedule a meeting with the plastic surgeon to discuss all the details of the tummy tuck.