“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 (tummy tuck) 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
Indianapolis, Indiana