Lisa is a woman who is very concerned about her image. Even during her pregnancy and after giving birth, she has kept herself pretty and bubbly all the time. She really is the ‘hot mum’ among us, not forgetting her recent braces treatment for a brighter smile.
However, Lisa has her concerns too. It’s not easy being a mother, and it takes a lot of effort to maintain a slim body and smooth skin after childbirth. Lisa’s friends who are new mums have also experienced changes on their physical appearances. Although some supermodel mums have no problems returning to their alluring states after pregnancy, many of us face several changes to our body after giving birth.
Listening to Lisa’s complaints, I could only think of how great our mum’s are! It isn’t easy being a mother, and many of us aren’t aware of the extent to which our bodies can change after pregnancy. So with Lisa, we’ve compiled a series of possible changes to your body after giving birth to a baby!
1. Stretch marks
Even though Lisa diligently applied anti-stretch marks cream every day during her pregnancy, she is still left with some stretch marks today.
Actually roughly 8 out of 10 mums face different degrees of stretch marks problems. During the pregnancy period, due to hormonal influence, our abdomens are stretched, causing damages to breakage to the elastic fibres and collagen fibres (especially after 6 months of pregnancy). This leads to stretch marks or uneven marks on the skin of the abdomen.
*Pregnancy stretch marks are usually found at the abdominal area, thighs, calves, chest, buttocks, and knees.
There are many reasons that can cause the formation of stretch marks, including genetics, skin colour, big babies, age, and weight change during pregnancy, among others. There are two different colours of stretch marks, red marks (Striae Rubrae) and white marks (Striae Albae). Red marks are the early state of stretch marks, and gives an uneven texture when touched. As time passes and the scars shrivel, these red marks become white and stays with mums.
If you’re troubled with the stretch marks on your body and want to get rid of this “mark of mums”, you can find a medical clinic that provides stretch mark removal procedures here in Malaysia and send an enquiry, you should receive a reply from the clinic within 3 working days.
2. Breast changes
For Lemon’s nutritious diet, Lisa maintained breastfeeding for 6 months. Breastfeeding for over half a year could be said as a painful memory for Lisa.
Due to her lack of experience, Lisa faced various challenges during her breastfeeding period (which I believe many new mums face too!), like painful breasts, lack of milk, nipple biting by babies etc. But with time, as Lisa adjusted her diet and grasped the skills of breastfeeding, she overcame the difficulties early infant care.
Lemon is now 8 months old and has stopped drinking mother’s milk. But a new problem arose. Lisa wasn’t busty to begin with, and after breastfeeding, she had sagging breasts! At the moment, Lisa solves this problem by wearing adjustable innerwears and doing chest exercises. When we last met, she did say that these have helped her to get tighter breasts.
If you have exhausted your options in dieting or exercises for your chest but still aren’t satisfied, find out what are the procedures available at these clinics in Malaysia for breast augmentation.
Lisa was also previously undecided about whether to opt for breastfeeding or formula milk. So we’ve analysed the pros and cons of both methods, if you’re interested you can check it out here.
3. Vagina loosening/abdominal scar
I believe that all of us need to face this choice: Natural birth or Caesarean section? Both chilbirth methods actually bring their own problems.
Let’s start with Caesarean section. Although you wouldn’t need to experience the pain of natural childbirth, the wound from C-section surgery is also painful and has a longer recovery period than natural childbirth. C-section involves surgery and an incision, so a surgical scar is inevitable.
Lisa chose natural childbirth in the end. Even though the recovery period is shorter than C-section, mums who have given birth to several children (or if vaginal tearing occurs during labour) may face vaginal loosening after conceiving. Some also complain of urinary incontinence when sneezing due to the effect of vagina loosening.
Listening to these, I really felt that mothers are indeed great people. And mums, don’t give up too! If you’re facing problems from vaginal loosening, you don’t have to feel embarrassed, just find a clinic that provides vaginal tightening treatment here.
4.Hair Loss
Lisa has always been proud of her hair, until she started having hair loss problems after giving birth to Lemon.
I believe a lot of mothers have also experienced similar hair loss problems. This is caused by hormonal changes during pregnancy, which stimulates hair growth during the growth phase. But after conceiving, the hormone levels drop drastically, putting hair growth into the rest phase, causing hair fall in large quantities.
This, however, is temporary, and hair growth usually resumes as usual after some time.
To know more about the phases of hair growth and loss, check out Am I Getting Old Or Is Something Else Causing My Hair Loss?
5. Skin pigmentation
Due to hormonal changes, there would be signs of skin pigmentation for mums during pregnancy, especially at the areas of the areola, lips, underarms, groin, inner thighs, and navel. In some cases, birthmarks or freckles can also become darker or larger.
Another condition brought about by hormonal changes is melasma. Some mothers experience melasma particularly on the nose and both cheeks during pregnancy (starting from the 2nd to 5th month of pregnancy) or after childbirth. The melasma formation is caused by the stimulation of melanocyte and melanosome by the high hormone levels in mums.
Therefore, to prevent or reduce the formation of melasma, I’d advice all mums to not forget about sun protection. Use non-sensitive sunblocks before going out, coupled with a hat, umbrella, or a long-sleeve shirt to avoid the harm from the sun. To know more about how to use sunblocks and how to choose the right SPF for your sunblock, check out my previous article on How to Use Sunblock.
You don’t have to be too worried, though. As time passes, post-pregnancy melasma will fade away. But if you’re tired of concealing your skin pigmentation, the better solution would be to get a medical aesthetics treatment to treat your melasma problems. You can find the clinics in Malaysia that provide melasma treatment here.
According to studies in Japan and America, about 18%~20% of women who take oral contraceptive pills experience melasma on their face.
Halfway through my conversation with Lisa, Lemon suddenly started crying out loud. Lisa decided to cut short our tea time to bring Lemon home for her evening nap.
Our conversation went something like this:
“It sure isn’t easy being a mum, eh? Even your schedule needs to be synced with your daughter!”
“Of course, I’ve lost so much of my personal time!”
“Do you regret it anyhow?”
“Not at all, not one bit!”
I believe that despite the sacrifices of a mum for her child, watching her baby grow up healthily day by day, everything becomes worth it! When you’re home today, remember to give your mum or your wife a hug, and tell them “thank you for all your hard work!”
At ERUFU Care, we help in searching for a specialist doctor or clinic. If you are facing any troubles on your physical appearance, skin, or mental health, you’re welcome to use our platform to send in an enquiry, I’ll do my best to help you!
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