Trolls said I looked like the Evil Queen when my nose doubled in size in pregnancy – I didn’t even recognise myself
When Gabriella Kelly shared a video online showing the changes to her face and body, she was horrified by the vile insults.
She had simply wanted to compare how she looked at four weeks and how drastically she had transformed by 37 weeks pregnant.
“It’s amazing what pregnancy does to us,” she said.
“At four weeks I was so full of energy and I even had the strength to do my hair lol.
“At 37 weeks I had pregnancy nose, my mouth doubled its size, I was so tired and didn’t even care to do my hair
“But it was amazing what my body did all of it was so worth it.”
But as Gabriella, 31, reached the final stage of her pregnancy earlier this year, she felt like a ‘totally different person’.
In the early stages she had felt a little nauseous but was full of energy until around 20 weeks.
At five months she broke out in spots and her face began to swell.
At that point vile trolls bombarded her with cruel insults such as: “I thought she was going to ask me to take a bite of the poisoned apple.”
Another said: “Omg I would sue my baby if it made my face change that much.”
So-called pregnancy nose is a rare and temporary condition that results from an increase in hormones.
The surge leads to the dilation of blood vessels and creates more blood flow to certain areas of the body, such as the nose.
Gabriella, from Richmond, Virginia, in America, gave birth to her healthy baby daughter on February 5th, and her nose returned to normal by the end of the month.
She added: “I had no idea my body could change like that.”
“The pregnancy started out great, I wasn’t tired at all,” she explained.
“At 20 weeks or so, I started to change a lot. I began to break out and my nose was not the same size and my mouth was kind of swollen.
“My nose doubled in size. My face was just truly not myself.
“I took some pictures with my husband’s grandma and when we looked at the pictures I was like I don’t look like myself at all.
“I really didn’t recognise myself by the end, I looked very different.
“My nose and mouth just looked so weird and swollen.”
But she was horrified to find her comments section flooded with vicious comments from mean trolls about her swollen face.
Gabriella first began posting updates about her pregnancy journey last May, after suffering an earlier miscarriage.
And after welcoming a healthy daughter, weighing 8lbs 5oz four months ago, her nose has shrunk back to its normal size again.
Despite this, the backlash has continued.
That video went crazy. I wasn’t expecting that
She said: “I was trying to show the full pregnancy journey up to having my baby.
“On the internet there are so many mean people who think it’s okay to come to someone and judge them or say mean things about their bodies or how they look.
“It’s such a vulnerable time for mums, pregnancy isn’t easy. We’re always scared of everything, thinking ‘the baby isn’t moving’ or ‘am I going to make it?’
“I wasn’t very comfortable with it but at the end I just wanted one thing which was my baby being born healthy and alive.
“I searched pregnancy nose and there were other women who had a swollen face who were way different in their pregnancy in before so I thought ‘Okay it’s not only me.’
“People come at you to say mean things and I don’t know what gives anyone the right to do that.”
What is 'Pregnancy Nose'?
Some women have been put off having kids by the risk of their face changing shape
While many body parts will swell during pregnancy, this is a rare phenomenon and does not happen to every woman.
Each woman’s body responds differently to hormonal changes, but the good news is if you do experience a larger nose while you’re expecting a baby, it will go back to normal after giving birth.
Increasing estrogen levels during pregnancy cause the blood vessels in your nose to relax and dilate in order to increase blood flow, which leads to swollen nose tissue – aka the bigger nose.
These changes can also lead to:
- Nosebleeds
- Increased congestion
- Inflammation of the nasal tissue, known as pregnancy rhinitis
- More mucus production