Mama Drama:
Got milk? Yes, a lot of it. In fact, your once A or B cup can suddenly runneth over as your breasts become engorged for nursing -- not exactly a change most women complain about...until they realize Mother Nature's boob job is temporary. As dermatologist Dr. S. Manjula Jegasothy, MD, founder of the Miami Skin Institute explains, milk ducts and glands deflate once a woman is done nursing, leaving moms with smaller and saggier breasts that they often describe as "bags of air."
Mommy Makeover: You can say so long to saggy breasts with a breast lift, which raises and reshapes breast tissue, while also eliminating any excess skin you may have acquired. If you're more interested in boosting your bust's volume, you can opt for implants to restore -- or increase -- original breast size. Of course, you can also have your doctor perform both a breast lift and augmentation, which we're pretty sure makes many a surgeon the ultimate bosom buddy in the hearts of their patients.
Cost: $6,000 - $10,000 for a breast lift $8,000 - $12,000 for breast augmentation
Mommy Makeover: You can say so long to saggy breasts with a breast lift, which raises and reshapes breast tissue, while also eliminating any excess skin you may have acquired. If you're more interested in boosting your bust's volume, you can opt for implants to restore -- or increase -- original breast size. Of course, you can also have your doctor perform both a breast lift and augmentation, which we're pretty sure makes many a surgeon the ultimate bosom buddy in the hearts of their patients.
Cost: $6,000 - $10,000 for a breast lift $8,000 - $12,000 for breast augmentation
Mama Drama:
Just as your breasts swell to accommodate milk production, so does your belly to, you know, grow a human baby. But, unlike your breasts, which may shrink post-baby, your belly can hold on to every last ounce of baby weight -- because the alternative would be way too easy, right? Many new moms are left with flabby, droopy post-delivery mummy tummies -- and perhaps a new understanding for why any woman would ever reach for those high-waisted mom jeans.
Mommy Makeover Moms who don't want to restock their closet with a new supply of denim have surgical and non-surgical options. "A tummy tuck consists of three things: Removing extra skin, removing excess fat through liposuction and tightening the rectus abdominis muscles, which expand when your uterus expands from the baby," says Los Angeles plastic surgeon Dr. Grant Stevens, MD. But women should not consider this option until they are done having children, cautions Stevens. Why undo all the changes baby No. 1 caused only to have his little bro or sis reprise their siblings' greatest physical hits to your body? Bonus: If you have a C-section scar, your surgeon can remove it along with the excess skin and fat during the tummy tuck.
For those who would rather not go under the knife, Schwartz recommends Sculpsure, a body contouring laser device that melts stubborn fat (Real Housewife Kyle Richards is a fan). "It takes about 25 minutes and your see a 20 to 25 percent reduction of fat in the area with each treatment," he says. Schwartz has also seen success with CoolSculpting, a device that freezes fat cells until they die (Here's everything you need to know about Sculpsure and CoolSculpting). Cue "Frozen's" "Let It Go" (with "it" being the baby weight, of course).
Cost: $8,000 - $12,000 for abdominoplasty*
$1,400 per session for Sculpsure
$1,500 for CoolSculpting treatment
*Note: Stevens points out that women who are considering both breast and abdominal work can have both procedures done at once in order to save money on the OR room and the anesthesiologist
Mommy Makeover Moms who don't want to restock their closet with a new supply of denim have surgical and non-surgical options. "A tummy tuck consists of three things: Removing extra skin, removing excess fat through liposuction and tightening the rectus abdominis muscles, which expand when your uterus expands from the baby," says Los Angeles plastic surgeon Dr. Grant Stevens, MD. But women should not consider this option until they are done having children, cautions Stevens. Why undo all the changes baby No. 1 caused only to have his little bro or sis reprise their siblings' greatest physical hits to your body? Bonus: If you have a C-section scar, your surgeon can remove it along with the excess skin and fat during the tummy tuck.
For those who would rather not go under the knife, Schwartz recommends Sculpsure, a body contouring laser device that melts stubborn fat (Real Housewife Kyle Richards is a fan). "It takes about 25 minutes and your see a 20 to 25 percent reduction of fat in the area with each treatment," he says. Schwartz has also seen success with CoolSculpting, a device that freezes fat cells until they die (Here's everything you need to know about Sculpsure and CoolSculpting). Cue "Frozen's" "Let It Go" (with "it" being the baby weight, of course).
Cost: $8,000 - $12,000 for abdominoplasty*
$1,400 per session for Sculpsure
$1,500 for CoolSculpting treatment
*Note: Stevens points out that women who are considering both breast and abdominal work can have both procedures done at once in order to save money on the OR room and the anesthesiologist
Mama Drama
You've managed to ditch the baby weight and restore your rock-hard abs (ok, so maybe just your abs), but no amount of diet and exercise is going to get rid of the excess skin in your belly area. Here's how to regain a flat tummy without going under the knife.
Mommy Makeover: Doctors rely on a couple devices to tighten loose skin: ThermiSmooth which uses radiofrequency technology, and Ulthera, which utilizes ultrasound. Radiofrequency is great for addressing superficial skin creepiness and, according to Schwartz, patients see tightening right away. But since it works superficially, the results won't last forever (think about six months) and the typical person needs about five treatments. Because the ultrasound goes a little bit deeper and acts as a sort of glue to hold tightened skin together, Schwartz often treats patients with a combination of both energies. Ulthera treatments typically require maintenance every one to two years.
"I'm not giving people tummy tuck-like results, but we can make them 60 to 70 percent better without surgery, and most people would much rather have that," says Schwartz. Another plus? Each session only takes an hour.
Cost: $3,000 for five radiofrequency treatments
$5,000 for the ultrasound treatment
Mommy Makeover: Doctors rely on a couple devices to tighten loose skin: ThermiSmooth which uses radiofrequency technology, and Ulthera, which utilizes ultrasound. Radiofrequency is great for addressing superficial skin creepiness and, according to Schwartz, patients see tightening right away. But since it works superficially, the results won't last forever (think about six months) and the typical person needs about five treatments. Because the ultrasound goes a little bit deeper and acts as a sort of glue to hold tightened skin together, Schwartz often treats patients with a combination of both energies. Ulthera treatments typically require maintenance every one to two years.
"I'm not giving people tummy tuck-like results, but we can make them 60 to 70 percent better without surgery, and most people would much rather have that," says Schwartz. Another plus? Each session only takes an hour.
Cost: $3,000 for five radiofrequency treatments
$5,000 for the ultrasound treatment
What do you get when you pass a human baby through a vaginal opening? A baby (duh) and a whole lot of wear and tear on your lady bits. But how exactly does labor transform your pubic area? According to Stevens, the labia minora tend to get torn and elongate, while the labia majora lose volume and get saggy. The inner part of the vagina can become loose and dry; the clitoral hood becomes elongated and the pelvic floor weakens, leading to urinary incontinence (peeing yourself when you cough, sneeze or laugh). Though after that laundry list of womb gloom-and-doom, we're not convinced many new moms are doing a whole lot of LOL-ing.
Mommy Makeover: If your kegel muscles are clenched in horror, fear not: There are non-surgical solutions to revamp your vulva and vadge. To tighten loose vaginal walls, doctors insert a wand-like device called ThermiVa into the vaginal opening, which uses radiofrequency energy to heat and tighten the area. It also increases mucosal moisture (meaning you can put down that K-Y) and helps treat incontinence (so you click on those funny viral videos in your Facebook feed without worrying you'll wet your pants). Likewise, the ThermiVa can tighten loose or hanging inner and outer vaginal lips using the same radiofrequency energy. "It's absolutely amazing," says Schwartz. "The tightening effects you get everywhere are great."
For loose, deflated-looking labia, Jegasothy says an injection of Restylane or Juvederm can help fill out your downtown pout. That's right, we're talking fillers for fuller lips. Because they're temporary, plan on getting new injections every two to three years.
Cost: $5,000 for three ThermiVa treatments (with one to three treatments depending on degree of vaginal looseness) $700 - $1,500 for vaginal fillers
Mommy Makeover: If your kegel muscles are clenched in horror, fear not: There are non-surgical solutions to revamp your vulva and vadge. To tighten loose vaginal walls, doctors insert a wand-like device called ThermiVa into the vaginal opening, which uses radiofrequency energy to heat and tighten the area. It also increases mucosal moisture (meaning you can put down that K-Y) and helps treat incontinence (so you click on those funny viral videos in your Facebook feed without worrying you'll wet your pants). Likewise, the ThermiVa can tighten loose or hanging inner and outer vaginal lips using the same radiofrequency energy. "It's absolutely amazing," says Schwartz. "The tightening effects you get everywhere are great."
For loose, deflated-looking labia, Jegasothy says an injection of Restylane or Juvederm can help fill out your downtown pout. That's right, we're talking fillers for fuller lips. Because they're temporary, plan on getting new injections every two to three years.
Cost: $5,000 for three ThermiVa treatments (with one to three treatments depending on degree of vaginal looseness) $700 - $1,500 for vaginal fillers
Mama Drama: The stress of having a newborn may make you feel like pulling your hair out but you shouldn't -- because your body has that whole rapid hair loss thing covered post-delivery. When you're pregnant, explains Dr. Tabasum Mir, MD, a dermatologist who specializes in non-invasive cosmetic treatments, the extra estrogen in your body is really great for your hair; it grows faster, it feels thicker and it's not falling out. But once your estrogen levels return to normal and your mane doesn't have that hormonal boost, it starts to fall out at a rate that alarms many a mama. "The actual hair phenomenon is called telogen effluvium," explains Jegasothy. "The different hairs on your head are at different cycles at any given time, but if you have a major trauma or incident -- such as a surgery, an illness or pregnancy -- it can cause all of the hair to go into the dropping or catagen phase of growth." So, basically, just as your baby's hair starts coming in, yours starts disappearing.
Mommy Makeover: Some doctors will tell you that you only think you're losing hair because you got accustomed to your estrogen-enhanced, voluminous strands, but that's little comfort when you're finding clumps of hair in the shower drain. If you don't want to wait out the temporary hair loss (normal hair growth tends to resume about a year after giving birth), platelet-rich plasma scalp injections can offer a fix. A doc takes growth factors found in a person's blood and injects 'em into the scalp, leading to what Jegasothy says is a typical 30 percent increase in growth.
Cost: $500 - $1,000 depending on level of hair loss
Mommy Makeover: Some doctors will tell you that you only think you're losing hair because you got accustomed to your estrogen-enhanced, voluminous strands, but that's little comfort when you're finding clumps of hair in the shower drain. If you don't want to wait out the temporary hair loss (normal hair growth tends to resume about a year after giving birth), platelet-rich plasma scalp injections can offer a fix. A doc takes growth factors found in a person's blood and injects 'em into the scalp, leading to what Jegasothy says is a typical 30 percent increase in growth.
Cost: $500 - $1,000 depending on level of hair loss