The Woman I Always Was
Carlita Boismaison reflects on her post-pregnancy transformation and how reclaiming her body helped her recognise the woman in the mirror once more
I’ve spent most of my life at war with my own reflection.
It started young. I was bullied from the age of eleven, called names about my weight, my curves, my body developing earlier than everyone else’s. I even had to move schools because of it. Those years leave a mark, and not just the physical kind. For a long time, I carried that noise with me everywhere.
But here’s the thing about being a mum. You pour everything into everyone else, and somewhere along the way, you quietly stop seeing yourself.
After three pregnancies, two C-sections and years of breastfeeding, my body had changed in ways I couldn’t exercise my way out of. I tried. Six days a week in the gym, four stone lost through sheer determination and a calorie deficit. I was proud of myself, genuinely. But I got deflated. Because no amount of hard work was going to fix two hernias in my abdominal wall, an apron belly that got worse with every C-section, or breasts that had given everything to feeding my babies and had nothing left to give back.
This wasn’t vanity. This was my body telling me it needed help I couldn’t give it on a treadmill.
I found Mr Ramachandran Prasad at Pall Mall Medical, it is the North West’s leading cosmetic surgery provider and l knew immediately I was in the right hands. In November 2024 I had a tummy tuck, breast enlargement with uplift, muscle repair and hernia repair, all in one procedure. Thirteen thousand pounds and the best decision I have ever made for myself.
Recovery was not an Instagram reel. It was hard. There were days I questioned everything, days I felt emotional in ways I hadn’t expected, days the swelling made it impossible to see what I’d hoped for. Nobody really prepares you for the emotional side of healing, the rollercoaster of it, the strange feeling of not quite recognising yourself yet but knowing something has shifted.
But then one morning, I looked in the mirror and there she was. The woman I had always felt like on the inside, finally reflected back at me.
Now I wear a bikini without hiding behind high-waisted bottoms. I stand tall. Not because society told me I should look a certain way, but because I made a choice for myself, on my terms, after a lifetime of carrying pain I didn’t choose.
What surprised me most was how many other women felt exactly the same way. The messages I started receiving, the questions, the relief in people’s voices when they realised someone was talking honestly about this, it moved me. So I built a community. You can find us on Facebook at Pall Mall Cosmetic Community, a space where women can ask questions, share their journeys, and feel less alone in the process.
This is not about chasing perfection. It never was. It is about self-determination. About deciding that you matter enough to be looked after, including by yourself.
My children have a happier mum. And I finally have the reflection I recognise.
Pall Mall is one of the few cosmetic surgery providers owned and led by doctors, offering the full range of cosmetic surgery procedures across clinics in Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, plus its own private hospital in Newton-le-Willows. Its GMC-registered surgeons, including specialists in rhinoplasty, facelifts, body and breast surgery, have carried out thousands of procedures, including for some of the UK’s best-known faces, and the clinic is rated Excellent on Trustpilot for care from first consultation through to aftercare.
For more information about Pall Mall visit pallmallmedical.co.uk/cosmetic-surgery
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