I thought I’d look cute pregnant but I was humbled – I could barely shower, people say I looked like a different person
IT’S no secret that your body changes a lot when you’re pregnant, but one woman had no idea just how unrecognisable she would become.
Mashego dreamed of being the kind of pregnant person you see on TV adverts, with glowing skin, a perfect bump and gorgeous maternity clothes.
But all that went out the window when she fell pregnant for the first time and realised how much of a toll it was taking on her body.
In a now viral TikTok video, the mum joked about how she thought she’d be “cute” as a pregnant woman.
In the clip, which has over 1.6 million views, she showed what she looked like before becoming pregnant, with chiselled cheekbones, pouty lips and flawless skin.
But then the video showed what Mashego really looked like – and it’s safe to say she didn’t exactly have the pregnancy glow she was expecting.
In the first picture the mum looked totally exhausted, and her days of wearing makeup were long behind her.
“I didn’t even have the energy to bath,” she admitted in the video’s caption.
Her previously flawless skin also vanished and the mum was left with acne and texture from all the hormones.
Then there was the swelling.
Mashego showed a picture of her legs and ankles when they were so swollen she could barely get her feet into her Crocs.
All of this meant a cute pregnancy photoshoot was out of the question, “I couldn’t even take pictures,” the mum told one TikTok user in the comment section of the clip.
In a follow up video, the mum said she did eventually “bounce back” and looks like her old self again.
But her pregnancy pictures were enough to put some people off having kids for good.
One commented: “I’m so afraid of this, no kids for me I guess lol.”
“I would cry every day,” a second wrote, and a third added: “My jaw dropped.”
Meanwhile, someone else was so shocked by the stark difference that they weren’t convinced the pictures were of the same person, they said: “I refuse to believe that’s you.”
But other mums knew Mashago’s pain all too well, and one even said the same thing happened to her.
“I also looked like a weapon formed against my husband,” she commented.
“My ankles looked like that too, I don’t miss it at all,” another said.
Mashago isn’t the only one who was shocked by her body changing in unusual ways though, recently another expecting mum was stunned when her nose doubled in size.
Becky Hathaway also took to social media to show the before and after snaps, leaving viewers shocked.
What is pregnancy nose?
According to Dr. Christine Greves, an OB-GYN in Orlando, Florida, many pregnant people do actually experience ‘pregnancy nose’.
Speaking to TODAY.com she explained: “The underlying reason is because of the hormones that are increased in pregnancy and those hormones cause dilation in vessels, which can result in more blood flow going to certain areas — and that’s because we need it for the uterus.”
And don’t worry, although it might be weird to see yourself with a bigger nose, it’s totally harmless for most people and will usually go back to normal roughly six weeks after giving birth, she added.
Pregnancy Myths explained
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