How To Prevent Terrible Stretch Marks From Pregnancy

If you’re like most women who have borne the miracle of life in their bodies, you’ll know that being pregnant is anything BUT the wonderful, magical experience much of popular culture tends to make it out to be. It’s an incredibly messy, exhausting, and emotional business. You get wild mood swings, you crave the strangest, most inedible things, you get morning sickness and back pains, and to top it all off, all of the stretching and hormonal shifts that your body experiences practically guarantees that you’ll get breast and stomach stretch marks. Thus permanently making summer a season to dread, and bathing suit selection a considerable challenge.

During that nine month period, a woman can get terrible stretch marks from pregnancy, especially since a woman’s belly can become distended to twice its original girth or more, and hormones that encourage lactation can cause a woman’s breasts to grow as much as two cup sizes larger. This might mean that you’ll look great in a low-cut top for a time, but it comes at a price. Once a person’s tummy and breasts revert back to their original size, the skin might not always recover completely.

Stretch marks are essentially scars. When certain hormonal elements are in play, and when a person’s skin stretches past its point of elasticity, the dermis, or the layer of skin between the epidermis –the outer surface- and subcutaneous tissue –the layer of fat underneath the skin, can tear. It usually doesn’t hurt, and it doesn’t bleed, so if you’re the squeamish sort, you don’t have to worry.

Other than the unsightly, discolored lines that can appear on areas of the body where the skin may have stretched the most, stretch marks don’t really create any other health problems, and unless you intend on walking around naked all the time, stretch marks aren’t really anything to lose sleep over.

A person can get afflicted by stretch marks in a lot of different ways. Pregnancy isn’t the only reason why people get stretch marks. After all, even men can get stretch marks. Aside from terrible stretch marks from pregnancy, stretch marks can be caused by obesity, growth spurts during puberty, and even rapid muscle growth.

So if you ever plan on pumping some serious iron, don’t forget to take some steps to avoid stretch marks. Moisturizing the areas of the skin that will stretch, like a pregnant woman’s breasts and belly, can be a great way to avoid stretch marks or at least make sure that they won’t show as starkly as they would otherwise. Also, eating foods that reduce stretch marks, like those high in zinc and vitamin E and C, can go a long way in preventing the dermis from tearing and causing stretch marks.

Usually, stretch marks start out as reddish-purple or some other darker color, but as time goes by, they can fade to a somewhat lighter color. The marks themselves are usually slightly smoother and softer to the touch than normal skin, but they aren’t exactly the prettiest looking things to have on your tummy when you want to show off all of the baby weight that you lost after your pregnancy.

Of course, a bikini isn’t the only clothing option for all of you new summer moms out there. The same can be said about people who’ve worked out and lost weight to get smokin’ hot summer bods, or kids who’ve just gotten their growth spurts.

There are a lot of ways to hide stretch marks. The most obvious way to do so is to cover them up with your clothes, but for those times when people need to show a little skin, products like self-tanners and concealers can also work really well. If you’re planning on having a little fun in water and don’t want to bother with waterproof concealers, the matter of how to conceal stretch marks is still a relatively simple one.

Tankinis and one piece bathing suits are a great way to conceal tummy stretch marks when you’re at the beach or by the pool. On the other hand, for people who have stretch marks in slightly more difficult-to-conceal areas, such as the upper arms and thighs, a colorful wrap or sarong can do wonders to cover them, as well as jazz up your beach outfit.

When you’re not at the beach, hiding stretch marks is often relatively easier. If you want to wear a mini skirt but don’t want people seeing the stretch marks on your thighs, for example, you can still show off your legs by wearing opaque tights or leggings underneath your mini. If tights and leggings aren’t your thing, wearing skirts that fall at or above the knee can ensure that people won’t catch a glimpse of your stretch marks when you bend over.

There are a lot of different ways to prevent stretch marks, alleviate them, or conceal them. Given all the choices and methods you could employ though, it’s important to use your judgment and to choose what suits you.