Pregnancy After Tummy Tuck: Fundamental Facts about the Procedure

Tummy tuck is a surgical procedure that aims to flatten the abdominal area by removing the excess skin and fat. This method is also used to tighten the muscles along the abdominal wall. This is different from the liposuction procedure. For one thing, liposuction sucks out the fat from a given area of your body but does not aim to do anything about the muscle groups in the region. Tummy tuck is considered as a major surgery. Therefore, if you want to consider this procedure for your abdomen, you have to determine the facts first before you decide if you really want to proceed with the actual surgery. In this article, you will learn more about this procedure and if it is ideal for you to have pregnancy after tummy tuck.

There are two main types of tummy tuck surgeries or abdominoplasty procedures that you have to know.

These types are classified according to the extent of the region where they are performed. These are the following:

• In mini or partial tummy tuck the procedure is typically done on people with fat deposits that are located beneath the belly button. During the surgical procedure, your surgeon will most probably not do anything to move your navel. This method may only take up to a couple of hours. The length of the entire surgical procedure is highly dependent on your case.
• Complete tummy tuck will cut your abdominal region open from one side of your hip bone to another. The surgeon will then contour your muscle, tissue, and skin as needed. This procedure will most likely involve moving the navel. For this type, you will need to maintain some drainage pipes inserted beneath your skin for a couple of days.

Men and women can both undergo tummy tuck surgeries, as long as they are in their current best state of health.

Women who have already undergone numerous pregnancies will find this method entirely helpful in reducing skin and tightening their abdominal muscles. This is especially useful if they are not considering another pregnancy after tummy tuck. This may also be a good option for women and men who have been previously obese and still have the excess loose skin or fat deposits around the abdominal area.

There are some people who should not consider having a tummy tuck in the future.

If you are a woman who plans to have a pregnancy after tummy tuck, you may opt to consider postponing the procedure until you are sure you will not be having any children after the surgery. During the tummy tuck surgery, the vertical abdominal muscles will be tightened. Therefore, future pregnancies may separate the muscles and can cause further complications.

If you are planning to shed off a significant amount of weight, then this procedure is also not recommended for you. This surgical method should be considered as your last resort after you have tried out everything else. This should not be considered as an alternative to numerous weight loss procedures.

Also, you may want to consider the probability of sustaining scars during pregnancy after tummy tuck. You may talk about this with your physician right before the surgery.

You need to think about some considerations before you undergo the actual procedure.

Initially, you have to select your preferred surgeon and set appointments with him or her for your consultation sessions. During that meeting, you will talk about your options and the goals that you want to achieve after the procedure, such as undergoing pregnancy after tummy tuck.

For instance, if you are smoking, your physician will most likely ask you to quit the habit at least 14 days from the day of the surgery and up to 14 days after you have undergone the procedure. It is not typically adequate to simply cut down on your smoking habit. You should also complete stop because this habit can make complications surface most probably. Also, this can significantly slow down your healing process after the tummy tuck surgery.

Before you get the tummy tuck surgery, you need to prepare some things that you can easily access at the comfort of your own home. These are just some of the following:

• Bathroom chair and hand held shower
• Petroleum jelly
• Comfortable and loose clothing that you can don and doff without much difficulty
• Ice packs

You may also ask someone to assist you by driving you home after the procedure. If you are living alone, you may ask someone to stay with you. The length of stay of your companion should be at least 24 hours from the time of your procedure. You should definitely make your plans for those.

Eating complete and well balanced meals is a good preparation procedure for you to prepare for the surgery. Also, a healthy and well balanced diet will most likely help speed up the healing process. At the same time, this can help you prevent complications in the long run. In line with this, you should never try out a drastic diet program before your tummy tuck procedure.

During history taking with your physician, you should readily inform him or her about all the medications that you are taking at the moment. These medications may include supplements, herbal medicines, and prescription drugs. In this light, your doctor may ask you to stop taking certain types of medications for a given period of time before and after you have undergone the procedure.

You may encounter some possible complications that you have to deal with after undergoing tummy tuck surgery.

For the first few days after the surgery, you will most likely have swelling and pain on the incised area. Your physician will prescribe some pain medications and will inform you on how you can best handle your pain levels. It is normal to feel soreness for several months or weeks. In this regard, tiredness, bruising, and numbness are typical during that period.

As for your surgery, you have to be aware of some risks that you may face in the future. Even if these risks are rare, you have to guard yourself against them to hasten your healing process. These complications include blood clots, bleeding under your skin flap, and infection. You are more likely to acquire some complications if you have liver problems, lung diseases, heart problems, diabetes mellitus, or poor circulation.

Insufficient healing may also be an issue. This type of healing can cause more loss of skin and significant scarring in the long run. If you tend to heal poorly in the process, you may need to opt for another round of surgery.

You should always expect to have scars right after undergoing a tummy tuck surgery. Even if these scars will slightly fade over a certain period of time, these will not completely disappear. In this regard, your surgeon may recommend you to use some types of ointments or creams right after you have completely healed. These can most likely help you in dealing with your scars. Usually, the target for making the scars disappear is primarily cosmetic in nature. Therefore, you may opt not to use them.

These are just some of the things that you may be interested to know if you are considering pregnancy after tummy tuck procedure. If you have any other concerns and considerations regarding the surgery, you should not hesitate to ask your physician about the matter so you will stay safe from complications that have everything to do with the surgical procedure.