Last weekend, Kim Kardashian let her Snapchat followers in on a little secret: Having a baby fucks up your bellybutton. “Anyone that’s had babies understands,” she told fans, ominously. That’s why she decided to get a laser treatment on the area. She wanted to “tighten it up,” she said. “So it looks normal,” she said.
You might think it sounds dramatic — but Kim’s not wrong. Experts agree that having a baby can, indeed, change your bellybutton. As Miami-based plastic surgeon Sean Simon, MD, told NewBeauty, “The skin and architecture of the bellybutton can become quite distorted as the tissues of the abdomen, including the skin and muscle layers, become stretched during pregnancy to accommodate the growing uterus.”
The result is that the bellybutton itself gets wider and looser. But that’s not the kind of thing a resurfacing laser, like the one Kim used, can fix. “Performed properly, there is a mild chance of an improved result,” plastic surgeon Mike Edwards, MD, told the publication. “But I do not feel this is something that will provide great benefit to the average patient.”
Like putting someone else's breast milk on your skin to "cure" psoriasis, Kim's recommendation isn't exactly one-size-fits-all. If you're unhappy with your bellybutton, post-baby or otherwise, it might be wiser to consult with a plastic surgeon versus a cosmetic dermatologist. Because despite what Kim might lead you to believe, not everything in life can be fixed with a pulsating light.
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