Woman, 34, Got a Tummy Tuck After Having 3 Kids. She Was Shocked by How the Plastic Surgery Affected Her 4th Pregnancy (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• A 34-year-old woman became pregnant with her fourth child after undergoing a mommy makeover in her 20s

• Tarina “Richie” Green felt like she and her husband were “done” having children, so nine years ago, she underwent a breast augmentation and tummy tuck, two procedures that are commonly done on women looking to change their figures after childbirth and breastfeeding

• She reveals what symptoms she experienced during her recent pregnancy that occurred because of her plastic surgery

A woman got a mommy makeover in her 20s after her third pregnancy — then, she got pregnant again nine years later.

Tarina “Richie” Green got a breast augmentation and tummy tuck as part of her plastic surgery transformation, a little over a year after welcoming her third daughter. She tells PEOPLE, “I wanted to reclaim my confidence and feel like myself again after years of carrying children.” The “loose” skin resulting from pregnancy, she says, made her feel “older” than her actual age at the time. “The surgery helped me both look and feel youthful.”

As the years passed, Green, 34, and her husband saw their family as “complete” and felt like they were “done” having children. “We’d tried for boys without success,” she reveals.

That is, until she became pregnant last year with her fourth child (she announced the arrival of her baby boy on Instagram on Feb. 11).

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Green’s fourth pregnancy felt different with her belly tightened by her past abdominoplasty, a procedure that involves the removal of fat and extra skin from the abdomen and tightening of connective tissue to narrow the waistline, per Mayo Clinic.

She experienced “ongoing tightness” and “discomfort” as her belly expanded during the pregnancy (she wrote on Instagram that her first and second trimesters “hurt a ton from all the stretching”). There was also added sensitivity and numbness near her incision sites that scarred over, and she was at higher risk for hernias and seromas (a build-up of fluid under the skin that can occur after surgery).

She also noticed a change in how her bump appeared, writing on Instagram that it protruded less from being surgically tightened even though her baby had “plenty of room to grow.” She adds that “the baby seemed to sit much lower than usual. I also started feeling him move super early, around the 13-week mark, which was wild because I could literally feel every little movement.”

Green even saw the results of her tummy tuck come through after eight hours of labor. Her body bounced back quickly. “I had a flat tummy just hours after giving birth,” she says.

Green has no regrets about her tummy tuck “at all,” despite how it may have affected her pregnancy. In fact, “it was worth every penny.”

There aren’t any future cosmetic enhancements in Green’s book yet, but she isn’t against the idea of another nip and tuck. Her plans all depend on how she recovers in the upcoming months. “I’ll see how my body snaps back. Some changes can’t be fixed in the gym, so if funds and health allow, I’d consider it again.”

Read the original article on People