Advice To Help Prevent Stretch Marks During Pregnancy
Before we discuss how to prevent stretch marks, we should know how stretch marks occur. Stretch marks occur when the skin is stretched beyond its designated elasticity. It then forms fibrous connective tissue in order to fill in the gaps. These tissues are less noticeable when the skin is stretched full, but will show as soon as the skin starts to recede to its regular proportions.
Stretch marks start out as red or pink in color. They then slowly lighten and appear blanched compared to the rest of the skin. They will eventually have the same color as the skin surrounding it, but it often takes years and years to happen. With such a negative out look on recovery from stretch marks, it is then obvious that the only solution available is to prevent it before it happens. Here are some tips that help prevent the development of stretch marks during pregnancy:
Follow a Skin Care Regimen – proper skin care is key to prevent the occurrence of stretch marks. Make sure that you hydrate and moisturize your skin daily, especially around the areas that are most stretched out by the growing baby. It is also best if you start early during the pregnancy, even before it starts to show.
Hydrate – drinking a lot of water will help increase the elasticity of your skin and in turn will help prevent stretch marks. Drinking lots of water will also benefit you overall health when you are pregnant and not just prevent stretch marks.
Moisturize – Use a good hydrating lotion on your belly to help keep it supple. Any reliable drug store brand of lotion will do, but you can also continue using whatever product you are using even before you got pregnant.
Massage and Stimulate – Massaging the skin on your abdomen daily will help to make it more elastic and help prevent stretch marks effectively. Massage the skin on your stomach in a circular motion for 10 to 15 minutes twice or three times a day or after taking a bath. Use lotion to help lubricate the skin. This will also help to stimulate the blood flow to this area making the skin healthier. Some women swear by Olive or Almond oil when they are trying to prevent stretch marks. The oils like any lotion can help soften and smoothen the skin making it more elastic and less prone to develop such marks.
Stretch marks are one of the few undesirable markers that pregnancy will leave you. They are also very hard to get rid off. It would take long periods of expensive treatment just to get them to a point when they are barely noticeable. In fact, if you are looking to remove stretch marks non-surgically then you are out of luck since most experts would tell you that there is just no way to do so. All you can do is to camouflage them and make them less noticeable. But then again, the best thing you can do is to prevent them from appearing. After all, prevention is still a whole lot better than cure. |
