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Home › Articles › Postpartum Issues › Belly Buttons After Pregnancy

Belly Buttons After Pregnancy

Mommy, Why Does Yours Look Like That?

By Jenn Director Knudsen

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Stretch that rubber band out a little bit and let it go; it quickly returns to normal. But pull on that band really hard and for a long period of time, and it remains a tad stretched out, says Dr. Jana, also associate director of the Girls and Boys Town Institute for Child Health Improvement in Village of Boys Town, Neb.

That winking belly button may scream, "I'm proud to be a mom!", but in this day and age, it doesn't mean you have to live with it, prideful of your status as you may be. "You can do as many sit-ups and crunches as you want, but you won't have your pre-partum belly," Dr. Klapper says.

Altering Postpartum Navel Anatomy
However, there is a surgical procedure to tighten up a loosened belly button, Dr. Klapper says.

Prices in New York City to repair the umbilicus – the medical term for a belly button – run between $3,500 and $5,000. Called an umbilicoplasty, it's not a very common procedure, according to Dr. Gerald Pitman, an American Society of Plastic Surgeons' spokesperson.

More often, a woman's belly button gets a little repair job during an abdominoplasty procedure – or tummy tuck – a much more invasive and costly surgery, Dr. Pitman says. (In New York, a tummy tuck can run up to $12,000, Dr. Klapper says.)

"We spend a lot of time talking about their belly button," Dr. Klapper says of the consultation phase with his mommy-patients.

Sometimes, though, a mom's belly button does suffer real (not just cosmetic) damage. If so, she should check with her insurance; it may cover at least a portion of the cost to surgically repair that injury.

Called an umbilical hernia, it's an opening in the abdominal wall around the belly button that the tissue pushes through and up. "It looks like a water balloon that comes out from inside the body," Dr. Klapper says.


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