Causes and Treatments of Pregnancy Stretch Marks

Stretch marks are the enemy of every young woman’s figure and they often appear during pregnancy. In fact, small women will find it nearly impossible to avoid stretch marks completely. However, there are many things you can do to keep them at a minimum, both during and after pregnancy.

What Causes Pregnancy Stretch Marks?

Pregnancy stretch marks are caused by the rapid growth of your body. Your skin simply can’t keep up and its elasticity starts to break down. Instead of stretching over your newfound girth, the skin begins to break, causing stretch marks – similar to the way panty hose develops runs. During pregnancy, stretch marks will most likely occur on your abdomen, your hips, your thighs and your buttocks.

Prevention of Pregnancy Stretch Marks

As with so many other things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Using a highly moisturizing lotion with cocoa butter can greatly increase the elasticity of your skin and help you to avoid pregnancy stretch marks. However, you must use this lotion not only daily, but also when you get out of your bath or shower and throughout the day on your problem areas.

In addition, you should take a hot shower in the morning and a hot bath in the evening, as the hot water helps to open up the pores of the skin, allowing it to stretch more easily. Just remember – when you get out of the bath, it’s time for more cocoa butter lotion!

You can also work toward preventing pregnancy stretch marks in certain areas by limiting your diet. Many women are tempted to follow their cravings and “eat for two” when really isn’t necessary. Instead, you should try to maintain a healthy diet while you’re pregnant. If you do so, you’ll likely prevent rapid weight gain in your buttocks, hips and thighs, preventing stretch marks.

Treatment of Pregnancy Stretch Marks

If preventative measures aren’t enough, there are also many treatments available today for pregnancy stretch marks. Cocoa butter helps with stretch marks, as a treatment as well as a preventative measure. This is good because in some cases, you may not even realize you have stretch marks on your belly until after you give birth and your abdomen starts to shrink. However, remember that cocoa butter usually works best when stretch marks are new – after a few years, it won’t work at all.

There are also clinical treatments available for the treatment of stretch marks. Laser plastic therapy can eliminate stretch marks entirely. Or, for those of us who can’t afford expensive plastic surgery, there are many clinical topical treatments that can be applied to reduce the appearance of stretch marks. These can be purchased from plastic surgeons, internet websites, health and wellness stores, and health- or beauty-related network marketing ventures.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever get your stretch marks to disappear completely. However, you should be able to easily disguise them so that they’re noticeable only to someone looking for them or someone looking at you close up. Since the only people likely to do this are your spouse and your doctor, this may just be good enough for you!