Pregnancy Stretch Marks: Causes and Treatments

White stretch marks on the abdomen

Becoming pregnant and eventually a mother is one of most beautiful and life-changing experience a women can have. Pregnancy, nonetheless, has its toll on the body and beauty of most women. But when it comes to beauty, nothing is more appalling than stretch marks that appear on the abdomen and other parts of the body.

Medically known as striae, stretch marks are the most noticeable symptoms of pregnancy that affect 90 per cent of women, mostly the young ones. Stretch marks appear when parts of the body grow faster than the skin can keep up with. As a result the elastic fibers underneath the skin tear causing the stretch marks.

Striae often appear as parallel, and sometime branching, lines of purple or red colour. Over time, these lines may turn whitish and resemble scars in their appearance. Women with light skin have higher tendency to develop purple stretch marks. On the other hand, those of darker skin tend to get stretch marks that are lighter than their skin tone.

During the 9 month pregnancy, women add around 13 Kg of weight. Most of this extra weight goes to the belly -where the baby is growing- and breasts –where milk is produced-. The skin covering these two parts of the body might not be large enough to accommodate such rabid growth, it just give a way. Stretch marks may also appear on other areas such as the buttock, arms and thighs.

Most stretch marks disappear over time without treatment. But some may remain on the skin for a prolonged period causing discomfort for the people who have them.

There's no way to prevent stretch marks and there are no products, such as cream or lotion, that can make them completely go away. However, a new treatment known as cosmetic lasers is known to be effective in removing them. The laser treatment works by stimulating a new collagen (a protein rich compound that repairs skin tissue) growth to fill the stretch marks. This seals broken blood vessels and repairs the fibres of on skin, resulting in rejuvenated and stretch mark-free skin.

Visit our site, for more information about cosmetic laser treatment for stretch marks.