Reparative surgery after pregnancy : the Mommy makeover!

Following one or more pregnancies some parts of the silhouette may have undergone modifications such as breasts or abdomen. The “mommy makeover” is a plastic surgery that aims to redraw the figure, in a single operation.

What exactly is the mommy makeover?

The 'mommy makeover' is a surgical procedure that aims to touch up parts of the body that have been damaged, so that they regain their original appearance, before the pregnancy or pregnancies, in a single operation. Depending on the needs, these different operations can be carried out:

- breast surgery: breast augmentation, breast lift

- abdominal belt surgery: liposuction, abdominoplasty

- gluteal volume restoration surgery

- intimate surgery to rejuvenate loose lips or vagina distended by pregnancies

An increasingly common request

Consultations for the mommy makeover are increasingly in demand. Women often want to regain their pre-pregnancy breasts or a flatter stomach, without stretch marks or excess skin. Abdominal muscle relaxation, due to excessive stretching of the abdominal muscles, is also a frequent reason for consultation.

Conditions :

- It is necessary to wait at least 4 months after delivery or end of breastfeeding, if the mother is breastfeeding

- It is recommended to wait for stable weight recovery

- And finally, there must obviously be a total absence of contraindication to the intervention that would constitute a risk

This is a procedure that can be potentially dangerous if safety and surgical common sense are not followed:

- Operation time should not exceed 4-5 hours

- Risk of bleeding must be properly assessed by surgeon

- Good health of the patient

- Overweight is a contraindication because it increases the risk of phlebitis, bleeding and infections

- It is important not to suffer from psychological disorders including dysmorphophobia

- No pathology that could put the patient at risk: diabetes, kidney failure, heart or respiratory failure, history of pulmonary embolism or phlebitis…

- Normal blood tests

- Normal clotting balances

- Patient expectations should be reasonable 

An intervention practised, but little known in France

In France, we are in a safe medical logic where we prefer to avoid associating too many acts during the same intervention. It is therefore necessary to carefully select patients who are healthy with a stable weight. It is also important to ensure that the surgical gestures will not be too long, otherwise the interventions will have to be separated into several stages, spaced 3 months apart on average.

→ The most important point is to ensure that the preoperative haematology assessment (which also includes the analysis of the patient’s clotting abilities), is perfectly normal.

Anaesthesia, price and healing

This procedure is performed under general anaesthesia because it is long and multi-zone, not allowing to perform extensive local anaesthesia.

After a mommy makeover it takes 14 days of convalescence minimum, but this may vary depending on the number of operations performed.

In terms of price, everything will again depend on the number of related acts but it can range from €6,000 to €20,000.