Practical Solutions to Physical Problems
Apart from weight gain, there are other nightmares to deal with post pregnancy - stretch marks, tummy flab, and droopy breasts to name some. Many women, working women in particular, find it a tedious chore to lose fat as they rather spend their free hours with their baby. Some expert tips and suggestions to prevent and treat your pregnancy problems are outlined below.

Silver-like slivers of thinning skin on thighs and tummy caused by the rupture of young collagen fibers in the skin.

Prevention: Doctors and dermatologists advocate moisturizing the belly and thigh and buttocks areas with cocoa butter and pure vitamin E oil.

Aesthetic Option: Vbeam laser utilizes intense but gentle burst of light in long pulses to treat skin conditions.

Expert Opinion: Prescription creams may help reduce unsightly appearance of stretchmarks but prevention is always better and for that you have to take precautions with weight gain during pregnancy.

Excess skin around the mid-section is very common after the third pregnancy of if you gain 15kg or more.

Prevention: nothing much can be done apart from following a healthy eating regime and a good exercise plan.

Natural Option: Healthy diet and some low impact exercise

Aesthetic option: Liposuction, an invasive surgical procedure where fat is sucked out, is an effective procedure. There is a healing period of up to 2 months.

The Alternative: Body by Thermage, a non-invasive aesthetic procedure is clinically proven to tighten loose body parts. Radio frequency waves are used to penetrate skin and cause underlying collagen to be stimulated and contract. Skin will begin to tighten immediately thereafter and continue for another six months.

Expert Opinion: The opinion is that Thermage is the best treatment for flabby skin. Results are long lasting; mothers who lose weight but still have flabby skin can resort to Thermage to tighten up the skin to pre-pregnancy levels. Most need only one session.

Stubborn weight gain in specific post-pregnancy areas such as waist, hips and buttocks.

Prevention: Prenatal yoga does wonders to keep your weight in check.

Natural Option: Low-cal diet with exercise

Aesthetic Option: Bariatric weight loss program, a highly invasive surgery to trim the digestive tract, shrink the stomach and reduce the caloric intake. Usually prescribed by doctors for the severely obese.

Expert Opinion: beside a sensible diet and exercise, your doctor can prescribe you some weight loss pills to help bring about a slimmer you. Mesotherapy for fat and carboxytherapy are effective treatments for reducing localized areas of stubborn fat.

Prevention: During pregnancy, put less pressure on veins by resting often. Sleep on your left side (decreases pressure on largest vein). Wear maternity support hose.

Natural Option: For mild to moderate cases, elevate your feet above heart level few times a day for at least 15 minutes each time. Severe cases may need compression stockings - elastic ones that squeeze your veins and stop excess blood from flowing backward.

Aesthetic Option: Vein stripping is an invasive surgery which involves an incision in the groin area. The offending veins are then disconnected, tied off and removed.

The Alternative: Sclerotherapy where 'spider' or varicose veins are injected with a sclerosing solution, so they collapse and fade. It is a quick procedure (15-45 minutes)and about 5 to 40 injections are administered per session.

Expert Opinion: If situation doesn't improve post delivery, laser, vein sclerotherapy or vascular surgery are suitable.

During pregnancy hormones cause laxity in the pelvic ligaments to allow the pelvis to stretch so the baby can be born. However for some, the stretch can go beyond the elastic stage and the vagina isn't able to return to its previous state. Tearing can worsen vaginal tone.

Prevention: Pelvic exercises or kegel can lessen vaginal slackening. Perineal massage with vitamin E oil is also helpful.

Aesthetic Option: Vaginoplasty, a surgical procedure can tighten the vaginal floor. This procedure cuts the excess mucosa and tightens the slack muscles, restoring their integrity so that they are tight again. However this is an expensive procedure.

Expert Opinion: Though surgery is the best option to remove redundant tissue, exercise is the best remedy for improved muscle tone. A tummy tuck with a pubic area lift is recommended instead, where the latter restores the vaginal opening to a useful position. Pudendal or pubic area lift can be done 6 months after childbirth.