When can I hug my children?

Dear Leelah28In most cases of breast augmentation, the implant is placed under the pectoralis muscle through a small incision. Since the muscle is stretched significantly, it can spasm and be rather painful. Sudden motion after surgery can cause severe pain and possible injury to implant pocket. Slow purposeful motion allows time for you to stop and protect yourself. With children, if they come to you and hug you, you will be just fine. If you try to pick them up, you are likely to have pain. If you have someone help you the first 3-4 days, you should do very well with both hugging your children and being safe. For the first month you should be conscious as to avoid sudden lifting, rapid pulling and pushing ... . After that you can do anything you would normally do. Best of Luck with your surgery this week.

Thank you for
being proactive with your question!

You are not alone as many women have similar concerns.
Please do ask your surgeon on what they recommend with regards to caring for
your children.

Recovery should
not be rushed nor underestimated and taking good care of yourself to ensure
your body has sufficient time to heal and look its best is essential. As
a patient, you must diligently follow your surgeon’s instructions and their instructions should take precedence over everything you read here.

Since you have small children, it would be great to have
your spouse, friends or neighbors to help you out for the first few days (1
week). Indeed, you'll find it difficult to lift them up and carry them, not to
mention feel very tired to look after small children. For some women, it may be
impossible to lift and carry children early-on. I would recommend that you
prepare to have some help for the first few days (2-4 days).  

With regards to holding them, you should be able to bend
over, grab your child, hold them close to your chest, and then stand back up. So
yes, you can hug your children lightly as long as you don’t put pressure on
your breasts. This way, you’re not using your chest muscles as much, but rather
your back muscles to lift the weight. This is the most important advice I can
give you: Try to avoid your chest
muscles for at least 2-3 weeks (do not lift more than 10 pounds for 2-3 weeks).
You can engage in greater use of your chest muscles after 6 weeks (i.e.,
vigorous exercising, push-ups, weight-lifting).

Toddlers are a bit easier to deal with when you're
recovering from breast augmentation surgery. While all toddlers like to be
picked up, you can get around that. For example, if your child is crying and
wants to be held, you can squat down and hug them, or you can sit on the sofa
or in a chair and have them climb up into your lap so that you can hold them.

You will definitely need help with regards to getting your children
into and out of the car seat, highchair, or crib.

You will feel better with each passing day. By the time you
are one week post-op, you should feel much better. You will still be sore, but
you will be feeling more like yourself.

Increasing the activity level is dependent on your own
perception of how well you feel. Any minute you feel an activity is causing
pressure or causing you to feel stretch in your breasts or incisions, then stop
the activity.

Hope this helps!