Yuck - effects on your body
There is no question that kids are wonderful, but also no question that they can take a lot out of you, in more ways than one! Pregnancy, and especially repeated pregnancies, stretch and distort the breasts and abdomen. Depending on your views, you can do something about it, and many women do.
The effects of pregnancy on the abdomen are fairly obvious. Although the uterus is usually about the size of an orange, during pregnancy, the baby grows inside the uterus, stretching the uterus and ultimately the abdominal wall. As the baby grows, the uterus presses on the inside of the muscle wall of the abdomen. At the front of the abdomen, the two vertically oriented “Rectus” muscles (the “six-pack” muscles) get pulled apart, and actually separate as the fascia elongates. Once that has happened, nothing other than surgery can bring them back together. Exercise can’t do it, since there is no muscle in the midline for you to exercise.
In addition to the muscle, the skin gets stretched as the baby grows. This is especially notable in the center of the abdomen, near the belly button. Stretch marks may develop. Once the baby is delivered, the skin collapses, and may leave loose, hanging skin. Because the underlying muscle has also been stretched, a bulge may be apparent in the lower abdomen, especially when you stand up.
The effects on the breasts are no less dramatic. Due to hormonal changes brought on by pregnancy, the breasts start to grow, especially as the baby is getting ready to be born. Following delivery, breast feeding causes the breasts to repeatedly stretch. Once breast-feeding is complete, the breasts typically decrease in size, often to a size smaller than they were before the pregnancy. Again, stretch marks and loose skin result, and the breast tissue loses its substance and starts to hang.
While even a single pregnancy has these effects,repeated pregnancy does the most damage. Often, women say that they had little trouble after the first and second child, but the third one caused a tremendous amount of abdominal stretching and breast tissue loss. Extra collections of fat, which might have been present but much less obvious, become apparent. The frequent combination of these problems: breast tissue loss and drooping, abdominal stretching of muscle and skin, and local collections of fat.
What’s your view? Have you had surgery? Discuss it here.