Can a woman safely carry a pregnancy after a body lift?

Yes. I have had approximately 20 patients have children after a 360 lower body lift. All pregnancies have been full term; no children have been deformed from the tightness of the 360 lower body lift. No women have required a revision of their 360 body lift after their delivery. I have even had a patient who had 2 children after a lower body lift and did not require any revisions. With pregnancy the abdominal wall will stretch and accommodate the child. After delivery of the child, the skin bounces back and results in a flat tummy. It may not be as flat as the abdomen was before the pregnancy, however it is usually nowhere near the excess that was present before the 360 body lift.

Thank you for your question. It is quite safe to bear a child after a body lift. You may require repeat muscle and skin tightening in th future but pregnancy can proceed as usual.

First, congratulations on your weight loss and maintenance of the loss!  The simple answer to your question is yes.  However, you need to take into consideration that a body lift surgery is potentially expensive and there is recovery time as well as risk.  To a certain extent the pregnancy will stretch your skin again and potentially lessen your surgical results so you may want to consider waiting until after having children unless you are willing and able to undergo another operation after kids.  I generally advise women to wait until after having children.

I have several patients who have had their weight loss and body contouring at a young age, then gone on to start a family.  There have been no problems with any aspect of the pregnancy. Pregnancy and  the associated weight gain will "undo" the surgery results to some extent, however I have never seen a patient return to their "before" appearance especially when the weight gain is average.Certain steps can be taken during the body lift or tummy tuck to allow less stretching of the result, and I do this for patients considering pregnancy in the future.Hope this helps !

Congratulations on your weight loss!  Before bariatric surgery gained popularity, it was very uncommon for patients to undergo abdominoplasty or any body contouring before having children.   Now it is far more common.  Patients who have lost significant weight often present for consultation reporting that they have achieved their goal for weight loss, but have not for their appearance or self-confidence, because of loose redundant skin.  Many of these patients choose to undergo surgery before having kids, and there is nothing about a body lift that prevents a woman from conceiving and carrying a pregnancy.  There is also nothing about the surgery that prevents the body from changing during pregnancy.  While I have several patients who have had kids after body contouring, none so far, have come back for additional surgery.  They all have stated that even after kids, they are much better off than they were before surgery! It should be emphasized that a body lift does not "burn a bridge," and if a patient were to have significant changes from pregnancy, additional surgery likely could be considered to re-tighten the abdominal muscles and redrape the skin.