Pregnancy & Changing Moles

This is a pic of the scar on my back from my biopsy. it is a little longer than a quarter, but better than having skin cancer.

In case you didn’t know, may is skin cancer awareness month. so i thought i would take this time to share my experience with you. i don’t know if it was just me or if all moms notice this, but i swear my freckles and moles changed dramatically during pregnancy. i imagine it has something to do with all of the hormones.

After i had my son, i noticed a freckle that i couldn’t see for the previous four months because of my baby bump. it was always a dark freckle but it had grown to about the size of a pencil eraser and the center was a different color. i probably would have let it go for a while but my husband convinced me i should go in to get it checked. sure enough the doctor made me get a biopsy of it and of one on my back that i hadn’t even noticed. the results on both came back extremely abnormal so i had to go back to get a different more invasive kind of surgery to remove more of the tissue…just to be safe. even though the results didn’t come back as cancerous, i still have to go back to the dermatologist every six months now to get a full body check.

Unfortunately as a native californian, i was a sun worshiper and used to frequent the tanning salon non-stop as a teenager. in my day (now i REALLY sound old) we used to be able to tan for 30 minutes and then go into the leg and face tanner to get even darker. i can also remember a time when i laid out ALL DAY LONG with baby oil & iodine on and ended up with such a bad sunburn that i couldn’t bend my legs because it felt like my skin would rip. i had the shakes and had to lay in the back of my dads van (showing my age again…no seatbelt in the back of the van….gasp)! i cringe when i think about it now. and i have the wrinkles and skin damage to show for it. 

from the stylish housewife

How To Do A Skin Self-Exam

Follow the steps below to find suspicious moles or skin lesions that a dermatologist should examine.


1. Examine your entire body front and back in the mirror. Then look at your right and left sides with your arms raised.

2. Bend elbows and look carefully at forearms, upper underarms and palms.

3. Look at the backs of your legs and feet, the spaces between your toes, and on the soles of your feet.

4. Examine the back of your neck and scalp with a hand mirror. Part hair for a closer look.

5. Finally, check your back and buttocks with a hand mirror.


Source: American Association of Dermatology

Melanoma: Recognizing The Signs

In examining moles and lesions on the skin, use the ‘ABCDEs’ and ‘Ugly Duckling’ Sign to identify possible melanomas.

Live In Our Skinz!

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month

Today marks the beginning of a month filled with free skin cancer screenings, fundraising events and melanoma warriors all fighting for the same cause–to raise awareness about the dangers of skin cancer and how to prevent it. This month is also a very exciting one for UV Skinz because in honor of Skin Cancer Awareness month we will be gifting, for the fifth year in a row, a free baby swim shirt for every order purchased during the month of May for our “I Saved A Baby’s Skin With UV Skinz” campaign!



We are also proud to announce the continuation of our “My First Skinz” program by donating the baby sun protection clothing to selected maternity wards and pediatricians’

UV Skinz will be including a free special edition 12/24m Baby Skinz with every order placed during the month of May.

The baby UV swim shirts will be donated to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in California, Peace Health Southwest Medical Center in Washington, Enloe Children’s Health Center in California, and Sonora Regional Medical Center, in Sonora, California, where UV Skinz is headquartered. It’s important to us that babies benefiting from this program along with their parents will be able to say, “What’s a Sunburn?” Just one childhood sunburn can more than double your chances of developing skin cancer in adulthood. Also, between 1980-2004 the annual incidence of melanoma among young people, especially women, has increased by 50%. It is very crucial that good healthy sun protection habits are started at an early age! When Rhonda lost her husband to melanoma in 2001, leaving her with three small boys, it was their future health and happiness that led Rhonda to found UV Skinz. Ever since, UV Skinz has never lost sight of the goal to get kids covered. Teaching our children good sun-safety habits is important so that they continue these practices into adulthood. UV Skinz makes it easy with comfortable, high-quality, and stylish swim shirts.

“We’re excited to once again be featuring our ‘My First Skinz’ program, which has had great success in
previous years on educating families about the harmful effects of sun exposure in infants. The free baby
swim shirt giveaway gets families in the early habit of making sure their children have adequate sun
protection – not just through sunscreen, which can be irritating to skin – but through our UV swim shirts
and UPF 50+ clothing,” says company founder, Rhonda Sparks. “We’ve built a full community on our
website to educate people about the damaging effects of the sun. Our informative Baby Sun Protection
webpage describes how parents can protect their children’s fragile skin.”

Remember for every order placed during May you will find our special edition “What’s A Sunburn” Baby Skinz inside your package! Please pay-it-forward by donating this shirt to a child so they will never know what a sunburn is. There will be a flyer within each order asking for you to pass along the Baby Skinz to a needy organization; your local women’s shelter, red cross, maternity ward, mommies group, a friend or family member. The possibilities are endless! We would love to hear where the Baby Skinz end up. Feel free to leave a comment on our Facebook Page.

We hope that through everyone’s efforts we can reach our goal of giving away 7,500 swim shirts for babies this May!

If you would like to know more about the campaign feel free to email info@uvskinz.com, call 1-877-887-5468 or read the official press release here.

Join our Facebook community and follow UV Skinz on Twitter!