[00:00:00] Every mom knows after you have a baby, it is not easy to get back in shape. Even when you are in great shape to start with after exercising and dieting, a lot of women are now turning to plastic surgery. It’s a big Trend. So we decided to follow [00:00:15] one woman with her extreme mommy makeover.  Frenchie’s feet facing uphill.

He’ll like so many women. Atlanta mom Lauren. Bay’s is battling the baby weight. She gets up at dawn to squeeze [00:00:30] in a workout and impressive five days a week after an hour of exercising, she gets her three girls ready for their day. While working full-time, Lauren does her best to eat, right to, it’s usually a salad of some kind [00:00:45] after her girls were born all by C-section. She noticed that her body was not exactly bouncing back to its pre baby days. Even though she felt she was doing

All the right things, definitely, not where I wanted to be. And it just seemed like it was harder to get back to where I was [00:01:00] Lauren’s referring to this body. This picture is from almost eight years ago. The last time she was comfortable, revealing her belly in a cute bikini but workouts and eating well were not changing her. Midsection which she felt was lumpy and after breastfeeding three [00:01:15] children. She also felt she had sagging breasts. Everybody’s got their own insecurities. But not to the point where you don’t want to have your picture taken with your kids because you’re just kind of feeling gross, sick of feeling bad about herself, Lauren decided, it was time for a more drastic remedy. [00:01:30] She opted for a new trend in plastic surgery known as the mommy makeover, dr. Diane Alexander is Lauren surgeon, I guess the concept of the mommy makeover is that we’re fixing from here to here, we’re fixing. The breasts were fixing the belly. This is [00:01:45] an extremely common procedure. I would say, it’s a number one thing we do women across the country are getting plastic surgery to erase the marks of childbearing.

And it comes at quite a cost at least four hours in the operating room. A minimum week of post-op [00:02:00] bed, rest and an average 16 thousand dollar price tag. And there could be an emotional price to pay as well. I spoke to dr. Robin Silverman, who specializes in body image issues? What kind of message does a woman who [00:02:15] gets this? Mommy makeover? Send not only to her daughter’s, but also to her son’s, we can’t blame mothers for wanting to recapture the body, they once had because Society continually tells them that they need to do that in order [00:02:30] to be beautiful. But at the same point, we need to be accountable for the messages that we send them to our daughters. That say we need to change our bodies back to the way they looked once and to our sons. Who say this is what is expected [00:02:45] of women for Lauren. The mommy makeover is an investment in her happiness. I am relatively young, I have a lot of good years left him.

So hopefully I think it is and I think it’s worth it. Lauren invited our cameras to follow her on this month-long [00:03:00] journey of transformation. So we want to fill in some of this area here that has been deflated. Even if you lost a little bit more weight, you would still have, you know, this extra skin here. And we’re going to do a little contouring of the arms [00:03:15] here. What we want to see is just a little more definition before heading into the operating room, dr. Alexander made the preliminary markings on Lauren’s body.

That would forever change her figure, including the creation of a new belly button. I just want to see what they [00:03:30] my clothes fit, like, on after this, I guess I’m kind of hoping that everything’s just falling off of me. And I have to go shopping, you know, during the weeks that followed, the procedure Lauren kept this video diary for us really, just a little sore [00:03:46] and my chest, it’s Friday.

Surgery was on Tuesday. Everything’s kind of swollen. Feels like I have boobs to my neck. So today is my first day back at work. [00:04:01] Oh, you look incredible? I’ve never had a flat stomach looking at Lauren’s body before the surgery and now seeing it after the difference is dramatic, and despite experts concerns, that this kind of decision could send a negative message to Children. [00:04:16] Lauren has no regrets. I just feel so better about myself. I guess I didn’t realize how much effort went into trying to camouflage that part that I didn’t like is just so nice to have a little confidence back, you know.

[00:04:32] And we wish Lauren the best, but you do not need to go to extremes to get back that body after baby. We’ve asked the experts because we want to help you guys do it. And we’ve created a list for you of seven ways to help get that pre-baby [00:04:47] body back, just go to abc2, news.com slash GMA