Baby Angels Blog

What can mums do to get rid of the belly after baby? And how do you slim down bulky legs?

As if stretch marks weren’t bad enough, pregnancy often leaves women with a big jelly belly to contend with. The bump that was so cute during pregnancy becomes like a balloon that’s lost most of its air the morning after the party.

While it might seem unimaginable in the first few weeks after delivery, yes, the tummy area can shrink back dramatically without plastic surgery.

Just how much and how quickly depends on several factors, says Dr. Laurie Casas, a plastic surgeon on the faculty of Northwestern University in Chicago and a spokesperson for the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

Obviously, diet and exercise are key, she notes. With a doctor’s permission, most women can begin working out within a few weeks of delivery (those who have had C-sections generally are advised to wait longer). And while breast-feeding women should not diet — and actually need a few hundred extra calories to make milk — all women can focus on eating a reduced-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains.

Of course, exercising may be low on the priority list for many busy, sleep-deprived new moms. But consider this: Pushing a stroller around the neighborhood for 30 minutes to an hour a day can go a long way toward melting away the fat, says Gina Lombardi, a personal trainer in Los Angeles who is working on a book about postpartum weight loss. There are even outdoor classes such as Stroller Strides in many cities now.

Other ideas: Walk with your baby in a front carrier. Do exercise videos or use home exercise equipment while the baby sleeps. Have your partner or a friend or relative take care of the tot while you hit the gym.

In addition to cardiovascular activity to burn off the baby fat, you’ll also need to do crunches to tighten those very stretched abdominal muscles. Start with one set of 10 repetitions and work up to three sets of 20, a few times a week, recommends Lombardi.

To really work the sides of your tummy, try the bicycle crunch, in which you lift your left elbow to your right knee and then switch to the opposite. Aim for the same number of reps and sets as with the standard crunch.

Addressing the weight gain within the first months after delivery pays off. Research has shown that women who do not shed their pregnancy weight within six months are likely to still be carrying it around 10 or 15 years later.

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.