Calls for Australian women to be given free tummy tucks

There are calls by some to offer women free tummy tucks, after an increasing number of women are turning to the procedure to relieve health issues caused by caesareans and pregnancy in general.

A recent survey of over 200 Australian women who have had abdominoplasty – a surgical procedure that corrects the three layers of the abdominal wall; the skin, fatty tissue and underlying muscle – has shown that most of them had the operation due to chronic back pain and urinary incontinence postpartum.

“As you know, pregnancy puts a lot of strain on the body”, specialist plastic surgeon Alastair Taylor told TODAY’s Georgie Gardiner on Thursday morning. 

Many women often experience excruciating pain during pregnancy, that is recognised as the abdominal muscles tearing as the uterus grows and organs move.

Dr Taylor explained that the split between the muscles at the front are what causes, “the abdomen to bulge and the pelvis to become unstable, the instability causes the back pain and urinary incontinence.”

“sewing the muscles together repairs this”, Taylor says.

Helene Byrne, a prenatal and postpartum health and fitness expert said that women should consider a tummy tuck as a last resort, warning that surgical repair, “should only be done after a woman is sure that she is finished with family building.”

The survey by the American Journal of plastic and reconstructive surgery showing that 20 per cent of Australian women, around 1.6 million, are suffering. However, with the operation causing up to $10,000, many Australian women still believe that it is unattainable.



Laurelle Mellet, mother of 4 and mother to teen popstar, Troye Sivan, has come out supporting the subsidisation tweeting: “Yes yes yes.”



"Women should not be unfairly penalised for giving birth," president of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons Professor Mark Ashton told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Abdominoplasty should be considered in a similar light in that it is a procedure that fixes an instability and addresses pain and function issues."