BlogHer - Breast Implants - Comments

Surgically altered boobs and breastfeeding

Suzanne Reisman — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:12:09 -0500

I hate breast implants. At the same time, I don't want to criticize a woman for making a decision about her body in the context of whether she can or cannot breastfeed. I would never challenge a woman who wants a breast reduction because it could impact her ability to breastfeed. I think this is a little bit of a slippery slope. Sure, it is important that women understand potential risks and side effects, but it always makes me uncomfortable when we try to instruct women on how to treat themselves solely vis-a-vis babies.

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants

Milk on top of silicone...

Gloria Pan — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:48:03 -0600

...adds quite a bit of heft. It's not simple engorgement that has given Christina's breasts those odd angles.

hmmm

Denise — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:58:11 -0600

I thought her breasts were larger than before due to the fact that she's nursing a baby. That's the impression I got from seeing her on a clip from Ellen last week.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings

Thanks, Gloria. That is some

Super Jive — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:33:40 -0600

Thanks, Gloria. That is some great information.

Your Pop Culture Librarian also writes almost daily at I, Asshole.

This site makes getting implants seem like Disneyland

Gloria Pan — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:51:35 -0600

But in fact, it's serious surgery. There are extreme risks whenever you consent to have your chest cut open.

On top of that, the safety of breast implants is controversial. Short term complications are quite high -- within the first three years of getting implants for the first time, almost half of all women experience one local complication such as pain, infection, hardening or the need for additional surgery. And they have no idea what the long-term health effects are, especially beyond 10 years, because no one has done the research. But with such bad short-term complications, one can only guess how bad it could get the longer implants reside in a woman's body.

Finally, implants are a very expensive long-term financial investment. They need to be replaced every 7-10 years, and checked every 2 years for rupture and cancer by MRI -- the FDA cautions that mammograms will no longer cut it. None of this is covered by insurance, so we're talking about everything out of pocket. God forbid the woman experiences complications, because treatment for that would need to be paid for out of pocket as well. So, if the women on myfreeimplants.com can't even pay for the first set themselves, how are they going to keep up with all these costs in the years to come?

None only women but entire families have been destroyed by the financial burden of implants. But myfreeimplants.com doesn't address any of this at all. Instead, it feeds the public feeling that "Gee, everyone is deciding to do it, so it must be safe and easy, so why not me? I'll just get them and live happpily ever after."

But maybe some women figure they'll just come back to myfreeimplants whenever they need help with their implants, and that eventually, there'll be a cadre of grandmas with sagging skin and perky boobs trying to raise money by fueling men's fantasies.

Hi Ladies, You asked 'how

candycouturezzzz — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:41:00 -0500

Hi Ladies,

You asked 'how long after having a baby should you wait until you get a tummy tuck?' - my answer would be 5 minutes - lol......

Seriously - My daughter is now 3 (I also have 2 teenage boys) & I wish I had had it done much sooner - just never thought about it. Have you got a PS in mind - you could always give his/her office a call & see what they say. You may want to give your body time to heal after childbirth. You also won't be in the right mind to be caring for a newborn if you have your TT too soon - in my opinion....

Candy

http://www.webyaa.com/category/beauty

raising my hand

KellyandCo — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:54:13 -0500

Guilty. Though I shouldn't say guilty because I don't feel ONE ounce of guilt after my boob job. My son is 3, I have been married for 4 years. I was happy in all aspects of my life~ except for my self confidence. It had always been somewhat low and the fact that my stomach had a little more "bulge" after my son was born didn't bother as much as the fact that it was coming out further than my flat chest. SMALL B and that's being generous. Now... I am a D, sometimes double D and I couldn't be happier. My husband didn't care how flat I was, but I know he wasn't against them going up a little ;) I love my boobs, LOVE them. They aren't PERFECT, but none of myself is perfect and I didn't expect perfection~ I expected that I could go try on swimsuits, cute tops without wearing a majorly padded bra from VS~ and now I can. And it feels GREAT!

Thanks

alyssaroyse — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:38:09 -0500

I suspected that was the case, but somehow it always seems worth pointing out that we need to support each other (sometimes with spandex, sometimes with stitches, sometimes with margaritas) whenever we are given the chance. I am as guilty as anyone els of making snap judgments and then having to back track to a place where i can respect anyone's decisions, as long as they do no harm.

That said, it's hard to say where the harm is in a situation like this - and it would be silly to say there is none. It's just so intangible, and so wrapped up in warped messages that we get from left right and center.

I would just hate to see more mommy wars..... We have it hard enough as it is. Personally, I think I have a hot body (though it looks barely related to the one I had years ago, and i don't see any like it in magazines anywhere.) But that is, as we all know, a state of mind.

So, how we get to that state is different for everyone. Bikrahm yoga does wonders for me, but it's all in my head (where my breasts firmly land when i'm upside down.)

Lifting spirits just takes a little more effort when battling gravity. But to each their own - I won't judge. None of us can.

Thanks for clarifying. (And I'll let you know if i have the girls put back to their previous latitude, with attitude.)
___________
Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com

crossing the line

Susan Wagner — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 08:46:27 -0500

Amy and Alyssa make a really important point here, and one that I flubbed in my post: there is NO right answer here. For some women, plastic surgery is a viable and appropriate option, one that works for them. For other women, yoga or running or a good bra and a pair of Spanx are the answer.

What bothers me the most about the "mommy job" is NOT the idea that plastic surgery can change your attitude about your body, but that EXTENSIVE plastic surgery is required. The Times article pointed out that women who come to consult about one procedure -- a breast lift, for example -- are often pressured into a package that includes the tummy tuck and lipo. What also bothers me is that this is being marketed specifically to mothers, as though great breasts will make you a better parent.

My intention here wasn't to criticize women who choose plastic surgery; as you all point out, that really is just another version of the Mommy wars. My criticism is of doctors and media who sell women a bill of goods about what it takes to be beautiful after a baby (or at all, really). I am tired of marketing that is designed solely to make us feel like we're failing, as wives and mothers and women.

I apologize if I stepped on any toes; that wasn't my intention.

Friday Style | The Working Closet | Friday Playdate

Nobody gets to tell me what to do with my body!

alyssaroyse — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 18:27:25 -0500

Thanks Amy - you are right. As people, what we really need to do is learn to accept each other for who and what we are and want to be. Personally, I'm periodically bummed when I look at my post breast-feeding boobs as they rush of for some secret encounter with my knees, or duck and cover in my navel. But they're my boobs, and I can do whatever I want with them. If i want to fold them into a bustier to look busti-er for the evening, my business. If i want to let them blow in the wind, my business. If I want to have a nice doctor put them back where they used to be, my business.

We do not get to judge each other for the decisions that we make with our bodies.

Is there a societal pressure to achieve some golden norm? Probably. But it is the same pressure that causes people to marry too young, try too hard to be too successful at what they do, drive the right car, live in the right neighborhood, etc... Pinning the weight of societal pressures on on cosmetic issues is no more holistic than pinning the "value" of a woman on cosmetic issues.

It is just as judgmental, just as dangerous and is the same problem but from a different perspective.

The simple truth needs to be that as people, we have the right to do whatever we want with our bodies, for whatever reason we want.

Should a woman who has fought a courageous battle with cancer, that has changed her body, be judged for having implants? Should a person who's destroyed a joint through a sports accident not re-build it because the degradation was the natural result of who they are?

Should someone who made one decision really get to judge someone who made a different decision?

I haven't had my breasts relocated yet, but I'm still thinking about it. And it's gonna take just as much inner-steel for me to explain that doing so didn't make me less of a woman as it takes for me to explain that their current location doesn't make me less of a woman.
___________
Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com

Whatever Works

abswyg — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:46:34 -0500

I find this subject to be much like the working mom vs. stay at home mom debate. There is no right answer. Whether it's lycra, yoga, hairy eyebrows, makeup or a makeover (the mommy kind) the point is that women should choose what works best for them and then feel secure in their choices.

Amy S.
Up With Moms (http://upwithmoms.blogspot.com/)

Also, spamming your post to

Super Jive — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:58:34 -0500

Also, spamming your post to say I second yoga--I do viniyoga which is good for creaky noobs, and I am thrilled to report that after my second child I am now down to being a C-cup. It's not all bad news. Hooray!

Your Pop Culture Librarian also writes almost daily at I, Asshole.

I am NOT saying there's a

Super Jive — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:56:37 -0500

I am NOT saying there's a relation between plastic surgery and self esteem, but I feel better about myself now than I did ten years ago before I had my girls, so I personally think less about how "bad" I look. I see pictures from then and I was younger and thinner, but I am so much happier now. So I say, BEHOLD MY BINGO WINGS. It is a summer night and I am out taking the air!

On a related note, I had a playdate the other day with a mom at my kids' school who got really thin and busty immediately after her divorce, as she had to go back to her pre-marriage work--stripping. She confided that she had herself "fixed up" to erase the effects of her two kids and to feel better after a hard break up.

I kind of said, "Wow!" because I figure to each her own, but she went on to say that if childbirth is being run over by a truck, then the "mom job" is being run over...and then the truck backs up a few times. Yipes! Whenever I what if doing anything, I go over to the awful plastic surgery website, which gets me down from the ledge.

***************
Your Pop Culture Librarian also writes almost daily at I, Asshole.

No Lycra, Just Yoga

Grace Davis — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:46:55 -0500

Bikram Yoga, lots of it. It makes you feel good about your body. And if you feel good about your body, you'll laugh at the thought of that "mommy makeover". That's all I have to say.

Grace Davis
Happy to be Alive, Even if My Ass is Drooping
Contributing Editor Life/Elders
State of Grace

lycra and boning

kyranp — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:14:21 -0500

Foundation undergarments. That's all I have to say.

Kyran, Notes to Self