A woman who underwent a “mummy makeover” has shared the dramatic consequences after spending thousands of pounds to go under the knife. Kelly Whittaker underwent the cosmetic procedure in July 2024 after spending years struggling with excess skin.
Now the mum wants to see an end to the shaming of women who undergo similar surgeries in a bid to feel confident in their own skin. Kelly’s story began with the birth of her son back in 2007, an event after which she saw her body go through dramatic changes, ultimately gaining 5.5 stone.
While prescription tablets helped Kelly shed the weight, they also left her with sagging skin that persisted despite her best efforts. Opening up to the Manchester Evening News, she shared: “Once the skin sags to that extent, no amount of diet, exercise, or cardio will ever get rid of it.”
Addressing her tireless attempts to regain her pre-pregnancy body, she said “I tried for years – yoga, Pilates, HIIT programmes, you name it, I tried it. While different things would minimise it, it was always still there.”
Kelly added: “It was horrible. A lot of new mums struggle with loss of identity anyway. They’re suddenly no longer themselves; they’re a mum and a partner and responsible for this new being.
“Combined with the loss of your physical appearance, it’s a lot. It took cognitive therapy for me to stop judging myself.”
Kelly always harboured the hope of undergoing surgery to shed her excess skin, but it seemed “inaccessible” to her, particularly after being informed that she didn’t meet the criteria for NHS treatment. She said: “I put it to the back of my mind assuming it would never be available to me.
“I would learn to live with my body as it was which I did for a number of years. I learned to hide it very well with the way I dressed but I always wanted to dress nicer and wear things I felt like I couldn’t wear.
“I started looking into surgery, realised it was possible and went for it.”
Eventually, Kelly decided enough was enough, booking a consultation for a “mummy makeover” – a combination of cosmetic procedures aimed at restoring a woman’s pre-pregnancy body, typically involving breast surgery, tummy tuck and liposuction -at Manchester Private Hospital in Salford in March 2024.
It’s popular because it’s customisable to the patient’s needs. In the UK, the cost of a mummy makeover varies, generally ranging from £6,000 to £22,000, depending on the specific procedures included. By July, Kelly had undergone the procedure including an extended tummy tuck, breast augmentation, liposuction and abdominal muscle repair – an almost six-hour surgery that removed 13lbs of excess skin and fat.
While Kelly says she struggled with the recovery process, the mum-of-two, from Stoke, says the procedure has completely changed her life. Within two weeks, Kelly, who documented her journey on her TikTok account, where she has almost 27,000 followers, was able to go out and buy her first pair of denim shorts for the first time in years.
“I cried so much,” Kelly said, recalling the moment she came out of surgery. “The results were pretty much instant. When you come out, you come out wearing shapewear. I put on the trousers to go home in.
“A couple of days before, they were fitting me fine and they were falling off me. I knew straight away. They removed a total of 13lbs of excess skin and fat from my body.
“When you think you’re carrying that around with you on a daily basis, it’s incredible. Within days, I saw what a difference it was. Within two weeks of surgery, I went out and bought my first pair of denim shorts. I put them on and cried.
“It was so simple, and most people would think, ‘I do that all the time,’ but for me, something as simple as denim shorts would have highlighted all my lumps and bumps. It made it all worth it.”
Kelly, who works as an administrator, now wants to change the way people think about cosmetic surgery – especially for women who have experienced motherhood. She added: “I wanted to raise awareness that it’s not as taboo as it used to be and raise awareness that not a lot of people are doing it because of vanity.”
“A lot of people are doing it for self-esteem and confidence issues; that’s the reason I went on that route.”