The women spending $10,000 on mummy make-overs

An alarming number of women are cleaning out the family savings account to get a mummy make-over. While some argue that this is a matter of personal choice and even 'empowerment', others insist it's the result of a media environment that places so much emphasis on erasing every single sign of motherhood from your body.

A mummy make-over is a cosmetic surgery procedure involving both liposuction and a tummy tuck to remove excess skin. Many women are adding in a boob lift as well. It's major surgery costing up to $10,000 and involving an 8-week recovery period during which you can't pick up your children. An increasing number of women are flying to Thailand for a 'mummy makeover' which costs 60 per cent less than in most countries. The rest of the cash goes to hair, nails, spray tans, clothes...it's a full reality-TV-show-inspired makeover.

Australian cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Darrell Hodgkinson says business is booming, with mums flocking to his practice to improve themselves. He told Radio National, "These are quite significant operations carried out by plastic surgeons but they do lead to a lot of satisfaction in that patients can wear the clothes they want, they are more confident in their intimate situations more often. It really is an expanding group of our patients."

He defends mummy make-overs, saying most women view them as corrective procedures, similar to any other corrective surgery. They aren't trying to look better than they've ever looked before, they just want to go back to how they looked before pregnancy.

Dr Hodgkinson admits the surgery isn't to be taken lightly and explained that most of his patients wait until their children are older because they have more time to recover and are less busy. "The mummy make-over generally appeals to that group, the 30-40 year olds when the kids are pretty much beginning to be more independent."

Caroline Beech is one such mum who decided to get a mummy make-over. She booked herself in for multiple procedures, the most important of which was removing the hanging skin from her tummy. The mother-of-three had dieted and exercised as much as she could and still didn't feel comfortable in a bikini. The 33-year-old had her husband's full support. “I kept thinking how hard we’d worked to put the money away and how it could be a trip to Disney for the children or a car. Then a friend at work who had had a boob job pointed out how much better it would be for the children to have a happier mum.”

Professor Alison Bartlett is the discipline chair of gender studies the university of WA and co-editor of the book Things That Liberate. She says social pressures on women are too much and is against mummy make-overs. "It's making everyone the same, like we need to go through our whole lives having flat tummies and uplifted breasts," she told Radio National.

She points to celebrity post baby body reveals as adding to that pressure. "Images like that do erase the maternal body and the post-birth bodies and so it becomes increasingly unacceptable where as I think it should be a badge of honour. It's an incredible thing that women's bodies have done in creating another human and birthing it and then supporting it until it can feed itself and I think it's just a shame that there's this pressure to conform to some sort of prepubescent body all our lives."

Would you have a mummy make-over if you could?

On the other hand, there are women who proudly embrace the physical changes of pregnancy and childbirth. See our Mummy Tummy Pride gallery and send your photo to info@themotherish.com.