There is always some confusion in regard to what fully constitutes a “mommy makeover.”  The basics are simple.  A mommy has had significant changes to her body after childbirth and so there are obvious changes to both the abdomen and the breasts.  In some patients, these changes are significant.  In some other patients/moms, not so much.  So, the idea is that a “mommy makeover” is any combination operation that would involve surgical correction of both the changes in the abdomen and in the breasts.

Most often, a “mommy makeover” involves a traditional breast augmentation, and a traditional abdominoplasty.  However, the operation can include additional lipo-contouring, liposuction, a breast lift, a mini-abdominoplasty, a breast reduction, or a combination of many of these.

You should really think about a Mommy Makeover, when you have decided that you are done having children. In this way, your body has a baseline that can be used to plan the procedures. Also, we want to make sure that you have reached a baseline in weight and contour that you can hold.

It is ok to come in and see us in preparation for a Mommy Makeover as much as 6 months to a year before. But in all fairness, you do not want to come in and make plans prematurely. The thought is to get you ready to have your body back, after you are done having kids. That just makes the most sense.

In all fairness, everyone is a good candidate. But to make sure that you are not at additional risk, we need to meet you and go through your history and your medical background. If something in your history or your medical background places you at risk for any type of surgery, then it is our job to work with you to see what other options are available.

Also, a point to be made here is expectation. You have to be honest with yourself. If you have not lost weight and are truly not ready to have surgery, and you walk in expecting surgery to fix everything, you have what we would call unrealistic expectations. Surgery does not make you perfect. Surgery, especially plastic surgery, done by qualified senior expert surgeons is to make you better—It is to fine tune you and get rid of the nuisances. It is not a magical fix.

If you have unrealistic expectations, you will most probably be disappointed. (Sorry, maybe I wasn’t supposed to say that; But it is the truth; be honest with yourself.)

Sometimes, we look at a patient and note that they may need some more rigorous surgery. By that, I mean that we need to do multiple procedures to get them to where they need/wish to be. That may mean that they need extensive surgery that takes many more hours than we would like to put them on the table. For this reason, and in some cases some other reasons, we choose to break the procedures into parts, or “stages.” In this way, we can plan the procedures to be shorter, less costly and in many cases safer. Let me be clear, we never put any patients at risk. We would rather cancel a surgery than do a risky, lengthy surgery. The way to alleviate that would be to commit a patient to an overnight stay. In this way, if a surgery goes long, then we can keep the patient overnight at the hospital. Our team of nurses can then monitor the patient overnight and make sure that there are no concerning events.

We have multiple options for each patient. The thought is that no two patients are the same and in the same manner no two patient surgical planning is the same. (I hope that makes sense)

Breast augmentation is a procedure during which we open the breast tissue from a myriad of different approaches and then augment/add volume to the breast pocket, making the breast larger. This can be done with saline, silicone, combination or complex type of implants.

The operation is the most common cosmetic surgical procedure completed in the United States and is one of the most common in the world. It is safe. It is an outpatient procedure in most cases. It does not involve an overnight stay, which means that you usually go home after you recover. The recovery usually takes about two weeks, at which point you are doing most of what you were doing before.

The specifics of which type of implant to get, or which type of incision to get all depends on you and your anatomy. The best and only way to really know is to educate yourself and then come in for a consultation. (Please be mindful about some of the things you read on Google and Facebook; Don’t freak out or get dissuaded; Educate yourself; Write down your questions and come in and let’s work together to see if you are a candidate)

Great question. Unfortunately, this does happen. That is not a bad thing. It is unexpected but it happens! And actually, it happens more than I would have thought before starting plastic surgery.

If you get pregnant after getting a breast augmentation or a “mommy makeover,” we simply have to deal with it. I have seen some bodies change minimally and I have seen some bodies change a great deal. We really cannot predict this. So, the best thing to do is to take a breath and then simply go through the process and keep your surgeon in tune with the changes in your body.

As for the breasts, I have seen some patients have children and then their breasts simply return back to normal. I have seen others have a mild asymmetry with one breast. This at times requires some recontouring. We wait until everything has settled for at least a year. But I would get your surgeon involved sooner so that you both can plan. As for the abdomen, obviously there will be lots of changes. However, again, at times the abdomen once you have gone back to your pre-baby weight may need just some fine tuning. All of this depends on your body and on your body response to the pregnancy.

The message here is that it’s going to be OK---Just take a breath and we will take care of it together---We are here to support you.

Definitely. Because so many women now have implants, the radiologists have come up with different specific views to complete mammograms on patient with implants. The mammograms tend to have the same degree of sensitivity and the same ability to detect any abnormality. Also please realize that now we have so many higher levels of diagnostic testing that if there is any concern, we can simply use a higher order test to look at the breast tissue more carefully.

That another great question. This is what we call a “diastasis recti,” which is Latin for a weakness in the straight muscles of the abdomen. When women go through childbirth, their anterior abdominal musculature stretches. Unfortunately, there is a limit. After the limit has been reached, then the fascia or the soft tissue between the recti, stretches the additional amount. After childbirth, the fascia in the middle slowly shrinks back but never goes back to being normal. To be clear, this is NOT a hernia. It is however an anterior abdominal wall weakness.

During an abdominoplasty or a tummy tuck, we go in and we assess this. If we see there is a lot of weakness, we mark this area. We then go ahead and bring the layers together with multiple layers of sutures and “plicate” this area. In this way, we bring the midline diastasis back to its original contour, what it was before childbirth. Some refer to it as a midline corseting or a midline muscle repair.

Most often we gauge your readiness to restart depending on how you are recovering. I find that most people are ready to go at about 3 weeks mentally. However, your body has not healed by now to be able to handle the onslaught. I usually tell my patients to expect to return to workouts at about 6 weeks.

Please don’t misunderstand. Most often, after breast augmentation or a “mommy makeover,” the patient will be walking around the house the next day. But the patient will not be doing to the gym for a while. I absolutely want to make sure to see the patient before the 6-week point so that I can firmly reassess them. If they are ready, they get the all clear. If not, we ask them to wait. I make it painfully clear that if they choose to start early, against our recommendation, and then run into a problem, it only delays them so many more weeks. For this reason, we work together to come up with something that makes sense for each and every person.

Yes. We place drains in all of our abdominal procedures for the simple reason that it gives the patient and us an extra level of security.

When a patient undergoes an abdominoplasty or a mini abdominoplasty, we detach and move around a lot of abdominal tissues. This in general causes the local tissues to swell and “leak.” This leak tends to happen for a few weeks as the tissues are healing. If you do not have an abdominal drain, the leaking tissue tends to collect and then become a problem. Without a drain, this at times becomes a permanent fluid collection or a “seroma.” To prevent this from happening, we often place an abdominal drain to collect and to manage this fluid. When the fluid drainage is minimal, we then take out the drain and let the rest of the tissues heal.

Recently, there has been a lot of hoopla about “drainless abdominoplasty.” This is more a marketing thing than a physiological thing. I will explain. No one wants a drain. I have had a drain and it is not great. However, it serves a purpose. Drainless abdominoplasty was advocated because it makes people think that it is better.

Unfortunately, the medical literature and the data shows that in a very large component of patients that undergo abdominoplasty without a drain, they develop fluid collections that have to be drained in the office weekly for several weeks. This entails sticking a needle into the abdomen once a week to drain fluid out. If the patient knew from the start that they would have to undergo getting stuck with a needle for 4 to 6 weeks, I am absolutely sure that they would go ahead and agree to a drain that is put in surgery and they do not feel. The idea is that the drain has a purpose and it is there to minimize any risk of complication from a fluid collection. When it has served its purpose, usually by week 3, it gets pulled out and then you are on your way.

Depending on your procedure, or the combination of procedures you undergo, you will need post-operative bras and binders. Fortunately, we give you most of these immediately after surgery. Once you are healing, and we are happy, we then make recommendations for you in regard to sports bras and abdominal compression devices, like Spankx etc. But please don’t leapfrog ahead. We will go through this together and make appropriate arrangements for you---One step at a time.

This is an absolutely great question and a very pertinent one. YES. The implant companies now have a fairly comprehensive warranty program that takes care of any problems with the implants. If there is a structural or a manufacturer/manufacturing problem with the implants, the implant companies pay for the replacement (of both implants) and for part of the replacement surgery. They are actually very good about this now. Also, if you have any problems with capsular contraction, the new implant warranties cover this as well. In the old days, this was not the case. Ask us about this and we can elaborate further on the specifics. If you wish, you can also pursue this on your own, on their individual websites (www.Allergan.com; www.Mentor.com; www.Sientra.com;).

We perform all surgeries at the Ward Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah.

That is yet another common and great question. There are tons of ways of paying for these. The most important thing though is to see what you want and what makes the most sense for you. After the consultation, we will sit you down with one of our patient coordinators. They will go through what we had discussed and then let you know the pricing for the procedure/surgery. Along with this, they will also let you know of all financing options that are available. We have had. Just remember, we are here to help make this happen for you. Please just be clear about what you want, and we will do our absolute best to help you.