At 21 stone and 5ft4, Ange knows all too well the judgement that comes with being plus-size – but the scrutiny she faced stepped up during her pregnancies.
She gave birth to a daughter in 2016 and earlier this year, surprisingly discovered she was pregnant with triplets at the age of 38. But concerned about her health, she claims doctors offered to terminate one or two of the babies, which left the mum appalled.
“I’ve always been a bigger person,” she said. “Even though I’m healthy and go to the gym regularly, there’s always judgement.” When she first fell pregnant at the age of 31 in 2015 with her daughter Dottie, Ange, from Somerset, didn’t know her weight but was a dress size 24.
“Doctors were horribly blunt with me. They said, ‘you should not be having this child.’
“They kept talking about the risks of diabetes, high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia, all because of my size. There was such a focus on the BMI scale. It was awful.”
But Ange had a textbook pregnancy. She didn’t develop any of the conditions she’d been warned about, and Dottie was born healthy in February 2016.
Ange loved being a mum and enjoyed seeing her husband Chris, 33, become a dad.
The couple knew they wanted to have another child, so began trying again in 2019.
“But this time nothing happened,” Ange, a creative director, adds.
With every month that passed, the disappointment grew – for the whole family.
“Dottie kept asking when she would become a big sister. Every month she’d wish on the moon for a sibling and my heart broke. I wanted nothing more than to make her wish come true,” Ange continues.
After two years of raised hopes and crushing disappointment, Ange knew something had to change.
They decided to stop trying and focus on Dottie instead.
She remembers the relief she felt to ‘give up and how it allowed her the space to truly relax and enjoy their amazing family of three.
But fate had another plan in store.
“On January 9th, 2022, I was at a friend’s 30th birthday party when I suddenly felt sick. At home, I asked Chris ‘What aftershave are you wearing? It smells disgusting and is burning my throat.’
“Chris took a beat and then replied, ‘You need to take a pregnancy test.'”
When she saw the second line appear, Ange was speechless and later realised she must have fallen pregnant at Christmas time.
But the shocks were far from over.
“In the build-up to my 12-week scan, I’d been feeling sick, so different from my early pregnancy with Dottie,” she recalls.
“I just assumed that we were having a boy.
“I couldn’t wait to see the baby on the screen, so was surprised that the first thing the sonographer said was ‘have you had IVF?’ I thought that was really rude.
“Then I heard the most incredible thing: ‘I’ve only said this once before. You’re having triplets!’
“Chris was cool from the start, joyfully exclaiming ‘I finally get my own band!’ I went into full-on panicked meltdown.”
Ange started to worry about all the things they would need to change about their life, such as their car and home.
But there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she wanted each of these babies.
“These were the children we’d all waited so long for. They were a miracle.”
Thinking back to her pregnancy with Dottie, she feared what doctors would say at her 14-week appointment.
“This time I was 22 stone – and having three babies. I knew that the doctors would focus on how risky this was. I steeled myself for what was to come,” she explains.
“Concern was all over the doctor’s face. After saying how dangerous it was to have triplets at my size they said, ‘Do you want to terminate one or two of the babies?'”
“I replied saying ‘absolutely not!’ and then got really upset when it was suggested again. ‘We’ve told you no,’ I said, ‘I’m not going to terminate any of these children.”
Just like with Dottie, Ange had a straightforward pregnancy.
And even at appointments, she was told she was the “most low-maintenance, boring triplet mum they’d ever had.”
She continues: “It was definitely uncomfortable for me as they grew. I got so big that I struggled to eat much or get out of my chair.
“But I didn’t develop preeclampsia or diabetes, or any of the things that they tell you if your BMI is above normal.”
Ange and the babies continued to defy the odds. Most triplets are born between 27 and 32 weeks, and Ange was still going strong at 35.
Healthy triplets are usually born weighing between three and four pounds. On August 18, 2022, Olive was at 4lbs 11, Ada was 5lbs 11 and Tucker at 5 lbs 12 – all by cesarean.
“The second I saw them I was overwhelmed by love. They were perfect,” the now mum-of-four says.
Since taking the triplets home, life has been an exhausting and thrilling rollercoaster for Ange and Chris.
She laughs: “We’re not getting much sleep. But I wouldn’t change a thing.