Saggy Breasts after Breast Feeding ??

It is a near universally-held concept amongst women that their breasts may sag because they had breast feed. I hear this frequently said during consults with women who want to improve their breast shape or size. The sagginess of their breasts, what we call ptosis, is due to stretched out skin and loss of breast tissue (post-partum breast involution). The combination of more skin and less breast tissue, deflating the balloon so to speak, creates the altered shape of the breasts. The question is…..does breast feeding make this happen?

In a recent study published in the flagship journal of plastic surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, their findings refute this longheld belief. Based on an assessment of 136 women, the authors found that other factors, such as smoking and number of childbirths that a woman has, were more significant causes of breast sagging. Breast feeding did not turn out to be a cause.

On the surface, this seems to make biologic sense. How would a child sucking on a nipple stretch out the entire breast? However, it is clear that breastfeeding does prolong the engorged size of the breast for a time period much loner than pregnancy. Does a longer engorgement phase ultimately sag the breast more than the pregnancy phase alone? Apparently not….at least according to this new study.

Dr Barry Eppley
http://www.eppleyplasticsurgery.com/
http://www.ologyspa.com/
Clarian North Medical Center, Carmel, Indiana
Clarian West Medical Center, Avon, Indiana
Indianapolis

“I want to get rid of my Baby Belly”

It is an almost every day occurrence that I hear in my Indianapolis plastic ssurgery practice from women how they are unable to get rid of their belly skin and fat after pregnancy, despite eating healthy and exercising. No matter how well they eat and exercise, that layer of fat on their stomach just above and below the belly button, is something that they struggle with. This frustration eventually brings them into office to seek a solution that they cannot do on their own.

Unfortunately, eating right and exercising will not make skin tighten or go away. Even the newer non-surgical skin-tightening devices (such as Thermage) will not significantly tighten skin and are rarely worth the cost. Liposuction, while great at taking away fat, does not tighten skin either and make actually make it look worse with less fat underneath.

For postpartum paunch due to lax muscle and skin, some form of an abdominoplasty (tummytuck) is the surgical solution of choice. There are different techniques for different stomach conditions. A woman may be trim but the skin is loose. These patients may only need a limited procedure called a mini-tummytuck. This results in a smaller scar, with no scar around the bellybutton. In women with larger paunches, a full abdominoplastty is required with a scar from hip to hip. Since tummy tuck scars are a big issue for women, the incision can be designed to lie within their underwear or bathing suit lines.

Tummy tuck surgery gives dramatic results, but there can be a significant recovery period. In full tummy tucks, it can take as long as four weeks for total recovery. For women who have had Cesarean section, that scar is essentially removed during the tummy tuck and a new, often less, noticeable scar will result.

Dr Barry Eppley
www.eppleyplasticsurgery.com
www.ologyspa.com
Clarian North Medical Center, Carmel, Indiana
Clarian West Medical Center, Avon, Indiana
Indianapolis