What is 'pregnancy face'? Mothers reveal their VERY different faces before and after having babies
Pregnancy is one of the most beautiful transformations a woman can experience, at least that's what expectant mother's are told.
The female body transforms into a baby growing safehouse - expanding, stretching and adjusting to accommodate for the new life germinating inside it.
While some tout the benefits of the famous 'pregnancy' glow, it seems the glean of motherhood is not a universal one, as women from all over the world are now describing how their faces ballooned during gestation.
Dubbing the term 'pregnancy face', thousands of women on social media have shared their 'before' and 'after' photographs of becoming mothers, in videos poking fun at their own transformations.
Women suffering with the affliction complain of having extra pigmentation, puffy eyes, loss of definition in their face, and enlarged noses.
One woman, Kezia from UK, shared a clip of how her changing face left her 'humbled' during the pregnancy of her first baby.
The mother, who welcomed her baby last year, shared a clip of her face before she fell pregnant, appearing happy and confident as she posed glamorously for videos.
Then, sharing her photos of her face at 37 weeks pregnant, Kezia appeared notably different, with a rosier complexion and puffier cheeks.
Captioning the clip, which racked up 13,000 views, she described having developed a 'fat face' in the latter stages of her pregnancy.
She's not the only mother on social media who has noticed their appearance as sympathising mothers littered the comments with similar woes, with one begging to know if it 'went away' while another admitted they'd developed a 'double chin'.
According to doctors, much of what those online describe is a result of water retention, a commonly reported side-effect among expectant mothers.
The NHS website cites swelling as typically occurring in pregnant women, particularly in lower parts of the body such as the legs, ankles and feet.
Effects can appear particularly pronounced 'if the weather is hot or you have been standing a lot.'
'Swelling is caused by your body holding more water than usual when you're pregnant,' the website reads.
Healthcare providers suggest remedying symptoms by avoiding standing for long periods of time, and resting with feet up as much as possible.
Drinking water, though seemingly counter-productive, can also reduce water retention, the NHS advises.
Another Australian TikToker, Tealla Anderson, revealed her changing appearance while carrying her baby.
'I love watching the swelling get progressively worse in each photo,' she captioned the video, which showed her face having grown puffier as she advanced through the trimesters.
'Here I am,' she said showing her appearance on the second day of her four day labour.
For Tealla though, symptoms of water retention were further exacerbated by pre-eclampsia, a serious condition characterised by high blood pressure and having protein in the urine. The condition can prove fatal if not properly treated.
'I was 100kg here, however at this point I did not know I had pre-eclampsia so the swelling was so not! Just bad luck,' she wrote.
Nevertheless, she said she felt 'so beautiful' and was 'honestly obsessed with myself at this stage'.
'Even now I look back at my birth video and I'm like, damn, her skin was clear and the feminine energy was high,' the new mother added.
The condition can worsen what some mothers are calling 'pregnancy face', since pre-eclampsia can increase the risk of damaged blood vessels, according to PreEclampsia.org.
Damaged vessels, which can be caused by high-blood pressure, allow more water to leak into and stay in the tissue which can prevent it from passing through the kidneys to be excreted.
Changes to hormones during pregnancy can also bring out skin conditions including acne, puffiness, dark spots, sensitivity or redness, say experts at Simple Skincare.
The phenomenon has been felt by hundreds on the app, with searches for 'pregnancy face' churning out a plethora of commiserating mothers.
Among them, Dave Mart, who accumulated 5 million views on a clip sharing her facial transformation during pregnancy.
Much like others who weathered the changes, the TikToker shared clips and pictures before falling pregnant and during, where she her face was visibly different.
Sand also shared her experience having 'pregnancy face' on TikTok, posting a picture before she fell pregnant and another when she was in the final months of gestation.
Mother to 'two beautiful autistic children', Sand shared the pictures on the app, where she amassed 87,700 views on the video.
Poking fun at her own transformation, the British mother wrote, 'My face won't change that much when I'm pregnant', next to a photo of her looking slender and beaming at the camera.
The next picture showed her while pregnant, looking markedly different. Making light of the changes, she said: 'It's the nose for me'.
Poking fun at her own transformation, the British mother wrote, 'My face won't change that much when I'm pregnant', next to a photo of her looking slender and beaming at the camera
Commenters shared in the experience, with one writing, 'my nose did this too! Why?', and another admitting their face underwent such a dramatic change their 'facial recognition on my phone stopped working'.
Mothers on TikTok have previously complained about having 'pregnancy nose', having see their features balloon while carrying their babies.
One, Gabriela Garrido, from Hackney, east London, was shocked to discover that her nose grew by a third by the time she reached the nine-month mark.
Sharing the tale of her nose expansion on the app, Gabriela said her nose still 'isn't the same', even after giving birth, though it has started to deflate slowly.
The post, captioned 'one of the many joys of pregnancy', shows Gabriela's nose pre-pregnancy compared to now, adding that it looked a lot 'wider and more round' at 37 weeks pregnant.
'My nose was wider and more round. It filled up as if someone pumped it like a balloon,' she said.
'I don't know if it doubled in size but maybe by one third. It was like Pinocchio when his nose grows out.
'It was around six months into my pregnancy, I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. I felt my face just looked a bit more swollen.
'In that last month I thought my nose definitely looked different, especially after comparing it to old pictures.
'Pregnancy nose' is believed to result from an increase in hormones, which leads to the dilation of blood vessels and creates more blood flow to certain areas of the body.
This increase in size is usually only temporary and most women find their noses return to their normal size a few weeks after delivery - however it has led to the condition being compared to cartoon character Pinocchio on TikTok.
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