A week or so ago, I was talking to another mother, who, despite having a slim figure that women who have never given birth would envy, has been considering getting a "tummy tuck." She's not alone. Now comes this article from the San Francisco Chronicle about women who have plastic surgery after giving birth. The article leads off with a profile of a 28-year-old who is planning to drop $15,000 on the operation. The accompanying photo shows a very skinny chick with an adorable child in her lap — presumably as cover for her horrible huge stomach she wants to get rid of.
There are the requisite quotes from experts on both sides of the issue — the sociologist saying woman are trying to look like adolescents due to societal pressure, the plastic surgeon saying that it's just women freely choosing to look sexy for their husbands. The woman who leads off the story denies that it's societal pressure; she just wants to fit into her freely chosen tight jeans and do her freely chosen exercises without all that flab hanging off of her. Jeez.
There's also this gem:
Dr. Mary McGrath, a professor of plastic surgery at UCSF, urges postpartum moms to wait at least six months before seeking surgery and to spend that time losing their pregnancy weight, toning up and focusing on their new babies.
Not necessarily in that order, I would hope!
A website says that tummy tuck surgeries increased 72% between 1997 and 2001.
And here's an article about what this surgery is like. Doesn't sound fun...
