Baby blues or ninth wave?

The birth of a child is an anxious and important moment in the life of every woman. Here it is, a tiny, warm miracle, lies on your hands and smells of milk and tender childhood. But not only joy can a newly-made mother feel. Experts talk about the so-called baby blues, that is, a short-term decrease in mood immediately after childbirth against the background of hormonal changes. This is a natural process and occurs in 80% of women in labor, characterized by feelings of sadness and mood swings.

But the baby blues pass quickly, within a few weeks, as the woman adapts to new routines and functions. Postpartum depression is much more dangerous.



Postpartum or postnatal depression is a form of depressive disorder and hormonal imbalance that develops immediately after childbirth, when not always positive and desired transformations take place in appearance, condition, regimen, diet and habits. A real ninth wave of overwhelming emotions! Being not only a plastic surgeon, but also a mother, I know these conditions firsthand.

A woman comes to my appointment in despair with a certain problem: cardinal changes in her body after a long period of pregnancy and childbirth. A young mother realizes that she has become different, first of all, externally. At the consultation, we find out the main reason for rejection of our changed body.



Firstly, if after childbirth a woman breastfeed the baby, then the transformation of the mammary glands occurs. The mammary glands of nulliparous girls are rounded or domed. After breastfeeding, as well as against the background of hormonal changes in the body during this period, the shape of the breast changes.

How changes can proceed:

1. Increase in size - an increase in the volume and mass of the glandular tissue in the breast, the skin is stretched. The mammary glands gradually increase in volume over the trimesters of pregnancy, but they reach their largest size after the birth of the child, when it is time to breastfeed;

2. Asymmetry of the mammary glands - depending on the characteristics of the constitution and nuances during feeding, there may be a noticeable difference in the size of the left and right mammary glands;

3. Breast flattening - change of shape to oblong and flat. It is accompanied, as a rule, by sagging of the chest;

4. Breast sagging (ptosis) - under the influence of the severity of breast milk and the increased volume of its own tissues, the breast can drop significantly below the level that was before delivery.

Such changes give rise to a complex that sometimes extends to the relationship with the spouse. Of course, as a doctor, I consider this situation from the point of view of medicine and psychology, and as a plastic surgeon, I try to help a woman find beautiful forms so that in a new role she would feel not just a happy mother, but also a confident, attractive woman.

Let's figure out where to start the path to improve ourselves in a new role and status as a mother. First, we differentiate the concepts of "mammoplasty" and "mastopexy". If the first term refers to a change in the size of the mammary gland by surgery, then mastopexy is a breast lift.

Both operations are often performed after childbirth, when breast correction and volume are required. Just mastopexy should be carried out after the period of feeding the child, since during pregnancy and lactation, the breast will increase. A breast lift does not affect the natural feeding process of the baby after the next birth. The result of the operation lasts for many years.Mastopexy is performed both separately and simultaneously with other types of plastic surgery (breast augmentation, reduction mammoplasty, elimination of stretch marks, etc.).

The second delicate topic that women are often embarrassed to talk about is intimate plastic surgery. If childbirth took place with complications, the young mother develops such pathological conditions as defects in the soft tissues of the perineum, the presence of uneven sutures after tears or incisions of the perineum, soreness in the area of ​​the scars.

Is it possible to restore tone to the walls of the vagina and how to restore elasticity? If a woman, due to the anatomical structure, has a prolapse of the vaginal walls and / or a wide opening to the vagina, which does not allow sexual pleasure, then she will probably need vaginoplasty (colpoperineolevatoroplasty). The same applies to patients who give birth again after colporrhaphy.

Indications for intimate plastic surgery may be a violation of urination, pulling pains in the lower abdomen, a feeling of a foreign body in the vagina, pulling scars of the perineum. Symptoms affect the quality of the spouses' sex life. In this case, the physician must decide whether there are significant indications for surgery. The gynecological surgeon assesses not only the condition of the pelvic organs, nearby organs, ligaments and muscles of the pelvic floor, but also carefully listens to the wishes of the patient.

Of course, the main goal of modern plastic surgery is to improve the patient's quality of life. It is important for me that a woman feels herself not only as a healthy mother, but also as a loving and desired wife. Postpartum depression is a really difficult test for both spouses. And here, both the support of loved ones in everyday life, with household duties, and encouraging words, compliments from the spouse are important.