You’ve been rewarded with one of life’s biggest blessings – children. However, becoming a mom can come with life altering body changes. Stretched abdominal muscles, stretch marks, sagging breasts… The cost of children can be high for some, but help is available to counteract it!
Drs. Simeon Wall Jr. and Holly Casey Wall of Shreveport focus intently on rejuvenating the abdominal area through the abdominoplasty procedure, commonly known as a tummy tuck. By removing some skin and fat, and tightening the abdominal muscles back to where they were before pregnancies, patients of the Wall’s are finding they’re ready to get back to the beach with the kids in tow.
By Simeon Wall Jr., MD and Holly Casey Wall, MD
and Beverly Brooks
The Plastic Surgery Channel
Who needs a tummy tuck?
If you’ve had children, you may be noticing some belly fat and extra skin and that just won’t go away. You’ve tried crunches, ab machines, cardio, and weightlifting, yet the extra skin and stretch marks remain unphased. “Even if you’ve only had one child, the muscles change and typically need to be repaired to restore the abdominal wall,” says Dr. Holly Wall, a board certified plastic surgeon in Shreveport, Louisiana. “The best time to have the procedure performed is once you’ve completed your family,” says Dr. Simeon Wall, Jr, husband and partner to Holly.
A stretched out abdomen is a common complaint following pregnancy, and also is a problem for people who’ve undergone substantial weight loss. An abdominoplasty might be the best tool plastic surgeons have to restore self-confidence for women not even old enough to be considered middle-aged.
What does the procedure involve?
An abdominoplasty is a cosmetic surgery procedure used to literally bring the abdomen back to where it was before big changes – like pregnancy and massive weight gain/loss – occurred. The critical point about a tummy tuck is that it is NOT a weight-loss procedure. The main goal is to repair stretched muscles so that diet and exercise will again be a viable option to look great.
For many women, the stretching of the abdomen during pregnancy does not return after it’s over. The muscles themselves are just loose. No amount of crunches or diet will fix that, unfortunately. When a physician performs the procedure, the muscles are stitched back together, allowing the abdomen to once again be flat.
Depending on your needs, you will either have a full, mini, or modified mini abdominoplasty. Each option is based on individual patient needs, meaning surgeons assess how much damage has been done to know how much needs to be repaired.
Abdominal liposuction
In addition to repairing the muscles, extra skin and fat is removed to bring about a contour rejuvenation. By utilizing SAFELipo – a method of liposuction developed by Dr. Simeon Wall himself and utilized in the Wall’s practice – surgeons have the ability to basically shrink wrap the abdomen, resulting in very aesthetically pleasing contours.
During the consultation, your surgeon will help you decide which technique is best for you. “Liposuction addresses the fat, but not the stretched skin,” says Dr. Holly Wall. “If your skin hasn’t been stretched, and you haven’t had children, you may be a good candidate for liposuction without a tummy tuck. Our goal is to get you back on the beach looking and feeling confident.”
Tummy tuck statistics and recovery
According to the American Aesthetic for Plastic Surgery , 151,200 women received tummy tucks in 2013. A full recovery takes between two and three weeks. However, pain is managed quickly and effectively. “The day after a tummy tuck you may feel like you had an extremely difficult boot camp type workout,” says Dr. Simeon Wall Jr. “Almost every woman tells us it’s much less discomfort than they imagined. We use a non-opioid pain reliever called Exparel. This pain reliever makes the procedure much more tolerable for the patient. It relieves pain during the first few days after surgery, allowing the patient to be up moving around quicker.”
Ultimately, the results speak for themselves. For women finished with pregnancies, they are far too young to throw in the towel just yet. One procedure could counteract all possible damage done by pregnancies, something that young mom’s might benefit greatly from when it comes to self-confidence.