Dear “Liposuction after birth and stretch marks”:

After giving birth, the body requires 3-6 months to “return to normal”. With exercise and proper nutrition you will reach your stable weight sooner. This is the best time for liposuction or tummy tuck.

At my practice, we offer various options.

These options are dependent on your skin laxity and the areas of liposuction contouring you wish or need.

We can consider:

1. a traditional tummy tuck where the ab muscles are tightened, the sides are liposuction contoured, the excess skin is removed, the mons lifted and a new belly button is created.

2. a mini-tummy tuck where the skin below the belly button is removed and mons lifted.

3. a panniculectomy / lipo-sculpting where the large lower roll of tummy skin is removed and the upper tummy and sides and / or back are reduced with liposuction. A similar technique is used for the upper arms called brachioplasty or thighs called thigh-plasty.

4. a body lift used with patients who have super-skin excess and the tummy, sides and back skin are lifted with or without muscle tightening.

5. liposuction of the circumfirential trunk for body contouring.

6. liposuction of partial areas such as the front abdomen with and without muscle etching, love handles, inner and outer thighs, arms, neck; any of which use traditional, syringe and ultrasonic liposculpting.

7. We now offer Cool Sculpting; today’s best working non-invasive, non-surgical fat reduction technology. There is no down-time, no anesthesia and minimal if any pain.

Stretch marks are permanent “dermal” scars due to thinning of the skin during the severe stretching of pregnancy or weight gain and other physical changes. They tend to be pink to whitish and permanent. We have found the following options useful in making them less obvious but they will be permanent unless removed via a tummy tuck.

Stretch mark options include:

1. Retinoids when not pregnant nor breast feeding.

2. Sculptra to thicken the dermis

3. IPL and fractional erbium or CO2 laser.

I hope this has been helpful!

Find a well versed, board certified physician and good luck!

Sincerely,

Dean Kane, MD, FACS

Congratulations on the baby!! I assume all is well there. This is a good wuestion and one that we get regularly. Liposuction is a procedure that is really for improving contours. Even with large volume liposuction (4500 to 5000 cc), only about 8 pounds of actual fat is removed. Most liposuction procedures remove about 2 to 4 pounds. This should give some incite into what I am going to say to your question.

After pregnancy, it is best if you get back to your pre-pregnancy weight as possible or at least to a point that you cannot get rid of the extra with a healthy low carb diet and exercise.

http://www.drwindle.com/liposuction

I hope that helps.

Best regards.

It is best to wait for 3-6 months before having liposuction after giving birth and it is helpful to be a close to your ideal body weight as you believe reasonably likely.

There is no procedure to remove stretch marks, however there are treatments that help to reduce them, possibly as much as 50%, including Thermage and Venus Freeze. It is best to have a consult so that your exact situation can be evaluated and a plan made that is specific to your skin and goals.

There is no hard and fast rule for a time frame to wait following birth for abdominal work. There have been reports of physicians performing abdominoplasty at the time of C-section, however, I do not recommend or perform this practice. It is generally best to wait for healing and you're body's own skin improvement following child birth. Your skin and abdomen will improve for up to approximately 1 year following child birth. You will also want to ensure that you do not intend to have more children prior to pursuing any cosmetic work. The only definitive way to improve stretch marks following child bearing is with tummy tuck surgery. Good luck!

Great question! You really want to wait for liposuction until your weight has been stable for at least 2 months. Liposuction will help eliminate excess fat, but in order to get rid of excess skin and/or stretch marks the only real solution is a tummy tuck (aka abdominoplasty). During a tummy tuck we actually remove the excess loose skin and tighten everything back up again.

After child birth I would recommend waiting about 6 months before any elective surgery. While you may be a good candidate for liposuction most women that have had children also have loose skin which can not be corrected with liposuction but requires a tummy tuck along with liposuction. The stretch marks on your abdomen between the your pubis and your umbilicus will be removed with the tummy tuck. For other stretch marks Fractionated Erbium Laser has been helpful.

We have successfully treated women approximately 3-6 months after delivery, when their weight stabilized. Liposuction would also be done in stages so as to make the procedure more comfortable.

As far as stretch marks, we would wait until the skin returns as much as possible to it's baseline and then use a combination of Velashape and/or Fractional CO2 laser in several stages to greatly reduce their appearance and to tighten skin. For many women looking to avoid the scars from a tummy tuck, this has been a viable option, depending on their individual condition.

Get your weight back to your normal first. I prefer that you are at a stable weight for at least 6 months. You may have a new normal after pregnancy. Liposuction may or may not be the right thing for you. It is great for reducing areas of prominent fat. It is not the same as weight loss. You may have problems with excess skin after the pregnancy. Liposuction really doesn't do a whole lot for that. It does nothing for the stretched abdominal muscles. A board-certified plastic surgeon will be able to help you pinpoint the causes of your current issues. Most unfortunately there is no good cure for stretch marks. If they are red I would keep them out of the sun/tanning beds. This could make them permanently darker than the surrounding skin.

Congratulations on your new baby. Best outcomes from body contouring surgery, including liposuction, are obtained when the patient is close to their personal desired body size and have maintained that size long enough for the skin to adapt to any weight loss or stretching. Generally a three to six month period after delivery or nursing is sufficient. The most predictable way to remove stretch marks is by surgical excision of the skin and fat between the navel and the pubis (commonly termed a tummy tuck". Consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon will determine what procedures can best meet your needs.