That post baby fat could be a hernia

Women often develop a protruding ‘mummy tummy’ after childbirth. But while many assume it’s down to weight gain, thousands have actually developed a potentially dangerous hernia. Emma Thomas, 36, tells her experience.

Because of my height - I’m only 5ft 2in - I’ve always been careful not to put on weight. I’m conscious that every pound I gain will show. I go to the gym up to five times a week and I love horse riding. Even when I’m not actually exercising, I always seem to be on the go, helping my husband Stephen run his property company and looking after our two boys. I didn’t have much of a problem shifting the baby weight after my eldest son Max was born - even though he weighed more than 9lb. Within a few months I was back in my size 10 jeans. But my figure after having my younger son, JJ, was another story.

However hard I tried, I couldn’t get rid of the baby fat around my tummy.
I did everything I could to make my stomach go down. I’d be on the treadmill three times a week and doing weights up to five times a week. I’d do at least 100 stomach crunches every day. But nothing helped, and all the clothes I wore looked awful. Even five years after JJ was born, I still looked as if I was five months pregnant.

I also had this “apron” of floppy skin that hung down from my belly button. I adored my children, but I felt miserable about what pregnancy had done to my body. My self-esteem also evaporated. I fretted about it endlessly and moaned to Stephen about it all the time, though he was very sympathetic.

I decided it was time to take drastic action - the only way to feel good about myself again was to have a tummy tuck.
I realised it was going to cost several thousand pounds, and discussed it endlessly with Stephen. Over the next six years, I saw several surgeons. They all examined my stomach and said I was a perfect candidate for the operation. But each time something stopped me from going through with it.

Sometimes I didn’t feel confident with the doctor or I just lost my nerve. Eventually, through a recommendation from a friend, I went to see Dr Dalia Nield at The London Clinic in Harley Street. She examined me and said the bulge was actually a potentially serious medical condition - it was being caused by a hernia.

She explained that a hernia is the result of tissue or an organ pushing through a weak area of muscle or tissue that contains it. In my case, the large babies I’d been carrying had pushed against my stomach muscles, creating a gap, so that my bowel had pushed forward through the abdominal wall.

I was shocked. I’d never dreamt I had a medical condition and was staggered and annoyed that no one had spotted it before. Even more terrifying was the fact that the hernia had been aggravated by the massive amount of exercise I’d been doing to try to flatten what I’d thought was tummy fat.

Had I kept on indefinitely, there was a good chance the hernia would have ruptured, literally pushing the bowel through the stomach wall, which would have been potentially fatal. Fortunately, the doctor was very reassuring, explaining there was a straightforward operation to repair the hernia.

Basically, they’d sew together again the two strong muscles at the front of my stomach to stop my organs from protruding in the wrong place.
The other good news was she could trim away the excess fat at the same time. I had the operation two months later. When I woke up from the four-hour surgery, I felt fine. It was only when I tried to get out of bed the next day that the excruciating pain hit me.

I’d been told not to stand up straight in case I pulled the stitches, so I had to shuffle about in a hunched position for about ten days. But all the pain and discomfort was worth it when the doctor took off the dressing and showed me my stomach. Not only had the hernia been removed but the excess fat was gone, too.

I had to take it easy for about three weeks, but six weeks after the operation I was able to start doing gentle exercise such as walking. We went on holiday about three months after the surgery and I can hardly put into words the sheer joy of wearing a bikini. I now feel like I’ve got the old me back.