Woman 17:  I went through a lot to have my children, and every time I looked at that scar, it brought back a lot of painful memories. After I stopped breastfeeding, my breasts just looked not good compared to the rest of my body.  And I had some severe asymmetry.

Tom Zewert:  Pregnancy can have some irreversible changes on the body shape. And no amount of exercise, unfortunately, or dieting, can reverse these changes in many women. The mommy makeover is really a combination of body contouring and breast procedures to restore the body back to its pre-pregnancy state.

Woman 17:  I catch myself still looking at myself in the mirror and I’m just like wow.  You know, and so it just really has helped my self esteem.  It has helped me with my confidence.

Tom Zewert:  The procedures that we typically use are breast augmentation to restore the superior fullness of the breast, a breast lift if needed, to tighten the breast.  And also bring the nipple and areola back up into a normal position.  And with the tummy tuck we bring the muscles together.  We tighten the abdomen.  We tighten the skin and fat and contour that so that the patient, if they desire, a lot of the patients are able to get a really well defined and some of them even a six-pack like abdomen that they weren’t even able to have before they had children.  If you have an abdomen like that, you want to be able to wear a two-piece.  You know, you want to have that option. And we expect, though, that we’re going to have a little bit more recovery time. So typically I’ll tell the patients that it may be as long as three weeks before they return to work.  And certainly, this is the case if we’re combining a breast lift, with a tummy tuck.  Now, if we’re doing a mini tummy tuck with a breast augmentation then, actually, patients can get back to work in as little as seven to 10 days.  Again, it’s very, very patient specific and we tailor our procedures to each patient’s individual needs. 

Woman 17:  They did everything to educate me to make sure that I knew what it takes to get my body to heal properly.