Joseph Perlman, MD

It's interesting how some women in my practice, who had children ,develop significant stretch marks and loose skin after one child and others, that have three or four children, and gain the same amount of weight,tighten back up and had very few stretch marks. For those unfortunate ones who skin stretches and never shrinks back down, even after they've gotten to their pre-pregnancy weight, skin excision is the treatment. For some patients this means   a mini tummy tuck, removing an ellipse of skin up to 6 inches wide with minimal tightening of the muscles from the bellybutton to the pubis ,and for others, it's the more standard tummy tuck with tightening from the breast bone all the way down, and removing more skin, usually from hip bone to hip bone.

As far as the breasts are concerned, patients who have lost breast volume, in addition to the stretching of the skin ,require an augmentation as well as a breast lift. As stated by some of my colleagues previously, the tummy tuck and breast surgery combo is referred to as the "mommy makeover"