After pregnancy, many women struggle to get their bodies back. Despite healthy eating and exercise, stubborn pockets of fat remain, leading many women to consider liposuction. However, jumping right into liposuction after delivery can lead to complications as well as poor results. The body needs time to recover, and you need time to adjust to motherhood before you opt for a liposuction procedure. So how soon can you have lipo after giving birth? While each surgeon has their own guidelines, the suggested wait time before getting lipo after pregnancy is six to nine months, for many different reasons.
Your Body Needs Time to Recover after Pregnancy
For nine months, you have carried a child, and this caused many changes to occur within your body. In addition to weight gain, your muscles stretched, your internal organs shifted positions, your hormones were all over the place and now, with a new infant, chances are sleep is not your best friend. And that is just with natural childbirth. If you experienced a c-section, you are recovering from a surgical procedure and your incision needs time to heal.
Pregnancy stretches the muscles and moves organs in your abdominal region, and you need time for these to heal before considering liposuction.
While many women get back to normal activities shortly after delivery, the body doesn’t snap back to normal for months. Your organs take time to shift back to their regular positions. Muscles return to their previous state. Hormones begin to regulate. Weight slowly drops with healthy eating and exercise. But this doesn’t happen overnight. Your body needs time to heal.
While you may be in a hurry to get back your pre-pregnancy curves, your body needs time to find them again. While you may have lost the body weight and feel that stubborn roll on your belly needs to go, the truth is, with time, it may disappear on its own. Because these changes are occurring, having liposuction during this time can interfere with the natural healing process. And because your body is still changing, areas of stubborn fat can be difficult to isolate, and you may not receive the results you desire. For this reason, most surgeons recommend waiting at least six to nine months for your body to heal before considering liposuction.
A Healthy Diet and Exercise May Be Enough to Lose the Baby Weight
Liposuction is not a form of weight loss but rather a procedure that helps remove the stubborn fat that does not respond to diet and exercise and helps sculpt your desired body contours. For this reason, surgeons recommend that you take the time to lose the baby weight first. Following a healthy diet and regular exercise routine after pregnancy helps your body heal as well as lose that baby weight.
Think about Recovery and How You Will Care for Yourself and Your Baby
Adjusting to life with a newborn can take time. There are sleepless nights, hours of holding and cuddling, finding time to do things like laundry, cooking and cleaning as well as resting and recovering. Many have help from their spouse or family members, but much of the responsibility falls on the new mom. Recovering from pregnancy and adjusting to life with a little one can be trying, and adding surgical recovery can often be too much.
Liposuction recovery can take up to two weeks, and during this time, rest is essential. You are not able to lift, so caring for an infant becomes difficult without help. For this reason, many surgeons recommend waiting until you have had time to adjust to life as a new mom and have additional help at home.
Consider Waiting Until You Are Done Having Children
While many new moms are eager to get their pre-pregnancy body back after delivery, the idea of additional pregnancies needs to be considered. Can you have liposuction between pregnancies or are you better off waiting until you are done having children? The answer is mixed.
Liposuction is a permanent procedure that removes fat cells, so subsequent pregnancies are safe and will not bring back these fat cells. However, pregnancy can adjust the contours of the body, affecting the results of your liposuction. In addition, pregnancy weight gain can cause surrounding fat cells to expand and change the results of previous liposuction. For these reasons, many surgeons recommend waiting to have liposuction until your family is complete.
Dr. Scot Martin concentrates on breast enhancement and body contouring at his practice in Las Cruces, New Mexico. A nationally recognized plastic surgeon, Dr. Martin is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
He looks forward to meeting you and helping you become the best version of yourself possible.
