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Post Pregnancy Treatment
Once the process of pregnancy has finished, many women find obvious changes in their bodies. Being mother is one of the most wonderful experiences a woman can have. However, pregnancy leaves marks on woman´s body difficult to change with exercise or alternative therapies.
Evident changes after pregnancy
Skin changes: stretch marks
During pregnancy, the elastic walls of the uterus expand to hold the developing baby. As the uterus grows, the abdominal tissues enlarge and stretch marks may appear. Stretch marks result when the skin expands beyond its limits, which causes the connective tissue to break down. Stretch marks reveal and become evident in the epidermis. A woman may observe that initially stretch marks appear as lines that have a pink color, and then they turn white. The most common area affected is the abdomen, but they may also appear in hips, buttocks, thighs, arms, back and breasts.
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Physical changes: weight and skin laxity
Besides the stretch marks, women frequently present skin laxity after pregnancy, especially in the abdomen area. Many changes occur during pregnancy, however excess skin, laxity and weight gain are major cause of concern for women.
For many women, hormonal changes associated with pregnancy may cause significant weight gain. The ideal amount of weight gain by the end of pregnancy should be about 10-11 kg., but the average is 10, 5-15 kg for most women. Women who had gained less than 9 kg weight during pregnancy, have an increased risk for delivering babies with low birth weight. For this reason, women should not restrict diet during pregnancy. For those women who gained more than 15 kg, weight loss after pregnancy can be slow and may need treatment. Different factors, such as pre-pregnancy weight (which woman has when gets pregnant); water retention, and diet, (besides the baby´s weight) may affect the woman´s weight after pregnancy.
During pregnancy, some women develop fat deposits in different parts of the body such as hips, buttocks, abdomen and waist. Abdominal muscle separation and abdominal skin laxity are very frequent conditions in women who have had more than one baby. These symptoms, -stretch marks, excess weight gain, and fat deposits-, may become a very problematic situation for many women.
In the same manner, throughout pregnancy breasts have prepared for lactation. After delivery, the frequent suction from baby stimulates mother´s breasts to produce milk. Some women feel more attractive during this stage, especially those women with small breasts, as they feel their breasts become firmer and fuller. However, some women feel uncomfortable with the volume of their breasts during lactation. Because of all the changes in maternity and after breastfeeding, the breasts lose volume, shape and firmness, resulting in persisting laxity. Then the stretch marks developed during pregnancy become more evident. According to recent studies, changes in woman´s breasts after pregnancy are associated to sudden changes in weight, age and number of pregnancies, and not to breastfeeding.
All women should gain weight during pregnancy, even those who were overweight before pregnancy. Usually, medical care for the mother during pregnancy involves a balanced diet and weight control. Even so, a significant weight gain is expected, which can be treated after pregnancy.
After pregnancy, many women experience frustration before the mirror, but they should know that breastfeeding may help them lose the extra weight they gained as well as get into shape. This is why milk production consumes calories from fat deposits in body. Therefore, it would be wrong to accelerate a treatment, before giving body enough time to adjust to normal conditions again.
The mother should consider a reasonable time before beginning any treatment. It is possible the hormonal conditions persist for some time, and the uterus suffers a process called involution to return to its normal position. It is advisable to wait the organism to get back to normality.
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