Why my baby really is magic: Woman claims fertility spell helped her conceive after six years of trying

The daughter of a 'white witch' has claimed she gave birth after six years of trying because her mother cast a fertility spell on her.

Hayley Byrne, 25, had been on an NHS waiting list for a treatment similar to IVF when her mother, Karen Tomlinson, offered to help out.

She agreed to don a fertility bracelet, specially woven in the red and white May-pole colors while Karen recited a white witch's chant.

Just four weeks later Hayley was amazed to discover she was pregnant.

Now she and bricklayer boyfriend Daniel Shaw, 28, are the proud parents of baby boy, Daniel.

The happy couple even believe they will be able to fulfill their dreams of having a large family with the help of Karen's neo-pagan 'interventions'.

Hayley, of Burnage, Greater Manchester, said: 'I've always been desperate for a child and so has Daniel. We were devastated to think we may not be able to have any of our own.

'Still, I only put the bracelet on to humor my mum - I didn't really put much stock into it.

'Then four weeks later I found out I was pregnant. We were over the moon.'

Hayley added: 'I had tried everything under the sun - we'd undergone all the tests, some of which were quite painful.'

After seeking medical advice, the couple were advised to sign up for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment, where Hayley's eggs would be taken and fertilized with Daniel's sperm before being reinserted to grow in the womb.

Unable to afford to go private, the couple faced a wait of several years on the NHS waiting list for their one chance at ICSI, which only has a 30 per cent success rate.

In May last year, Ms Tomlinson presented her daughter with a unique gift - a fertility bracelet which she had spent weeks preparing and had left 'charging' in the sun on her pentagram for over a month.

Karen had always been interested in the power of crystals, but over the past six years she had become a keen follower of Wicca, a neo-pagan religion focusing on spirituality and the powers of the elements, and had even enrolled in a local coven.

When the Stockport-based coven began 'charging' fertility bracelets for the Beltane festival, a gathering which celebrates their God and Goddess coming together to produce the new king, Karen had taken the opportunity to create one for her daughter.

She recited a special chant and tied the bracelet around Hayley's wrist, channeling positive thoughts into nature bringing her daughter the baby she desperately wanted.

Hayley said, 'My mum had been involved in the coven for quite a few years and had always been interested in crystals. I just always thought it was a bit weird.

'I had no idea that before she came to me with the bracelet she'd been charging it on her pentagram in the sun for about a month. It was intended for me and she said she wanted to put as much power in it as she could.'

Despite remaining unconvinced, Hayley kept the bracelet on her wrist day and night and after four weeks she was astounded to discover she was expecting.

Shocked, Hayley took five pregnancy tests before going to her doctors who, in view of her conception problems, sent her for an internal scan which confirmed that she was pregnant.

With a new-found belief in her mother's powers, Hayley shunned pain-killing drugs and relied on just the power of 'charged' crystals to help her through labor, and son Daniel was born in January this year.

Hayley said, 'My mum had been praying for us throughout the pregnancy. With the witches as well, during their rituals and prayers.

'The birth was so easy and I didn't take any painkillers. I was expecting something painful because of the stories you hear, but my birth was so quick and easy that even the midwife commented on it.

'Afterwards I told Daniel that I felt sure the crystals had helped.'

Things that can happen in a bathroom!

IVF begets 2nd generation

One of the first women in Australia to be born through IVF technology has herself had a baby - by natural means.

In what is believed to be an Australian first, Megan Randal, who as Megan Leslie was Queensland's first baby conceived using in-vitro fertilisation, bore a son, Charley, on June 12.

In another twist, the same obstetrician who delivered Megan and her twin brother 26 years ago also acted as obstetrician for Charley's birth. Dr Doug Keeping delivered Megan and Matthew in March, 1984.

There were fears about whether IVF babies would themselves be able to bear children without difficulty.

Australia's first IVF-conceived baby, Candice Reed, turns 30 on June 23.

Ghosts

A professor at the Auburn University was giving a lecture on Paranormal Studies.

To get a feel for his audience, he asks, 'How many people here believe in ghosts?'

About 90 students raise their hands.

'Well, that's a good start. Out of those who believe in ghosts, do any of you think you have seen a ghost?'

About 40 students raise their hands.

'That's really good. I'm really glad you take this seriously. Has anyone here ever talked to a ghost?'

About 15 students raise their hand.

'Has anyone here ever touched a ghost?'

Three students raise their hands.

'That's fantastic. Now let me ask you one question further...Have any of you ever made love to a ghost?'

Way in the back, Ahmed raises his hand.

The professor takes off his glasses and says 'Son, all the years I've been giving this lecture, no one has ever claimed to have made love to a ghost.
You've got to come up here and tell us about your experience.'

The Middle Eastern student replied with a nod and a grin, and began to make his way up to the podium.

When he reached the front of the room, the professor asks, 'So, Ahmed, tell us what it's like to have sex with a ghost?'

Ahmed replied, "Shit, from back there I thought you said Goats."

Blood Test For Cancer Detection Before It Starts

In a major breakthrough, British researchers have developed a blood test that can detect cancer even before it develops and can be diagnosed with tests in use at present.
The new test, which replicates the cancer proteins that trigger the body’s response to the disease, has been developed by the University of Nottingham’s spin-out company Oncimmune Ltd. It will help detect cancer as much as five years earlier than testing methods like mammography and CT scans.
The blood test was developed from the early work of John Robertson, a world renowned breast cancer specialist and professor of surgery at Nottingham University. It is expected to change the current paradigm of diagnosis and treatment for most solid cancers such as lung, breast, ovarian, colon and prostate.
Initially, the blood test will be offered later this month via primary care physicians and pulmonologists in the United States for high risk asymptotic lung cancer patients as well as those who have indeterminate lung nodules. The test, which gives results within a week, will be introduced in the UK early next year.
“We believe this test, along with the others we will launch in the next few years, will lead to a better prognosis for a significant number of cancer sufferers,” according to Geoffrey Hamilton-Fairley, executive chairman of Oncimmune.
Initial research by Prof. Robertson was based on blood samples of breast cancer patients collected in Nottingham. His research revealed that cancer marker could be detected in some of the high-risk patients before they were subsequently diagnosed with cancer. Prof. Robertson showed that the test could have detected over half of the cancers up to four years before they were actually diagnosed.

Football Strategies

Transport Canada

Plastic Surgery - Butt Lift!

World's Oldest New Mom Dying At Age 72, Child Is Only 18 Months

When she was 70, Rajo Devi Lohan and her husband Balla took out almost $3,000 in loans for IVF treatments in Baddhu Patti, India, to conceive their only child, Naveen.

Now 72, Rajo is bedridden and doesn’t have the strength to lift 18-month-old Naveen. She admits she is dying, and too weak to recover from the pregnancy.

Dr. Keith Ablow, psychiatrist, fears that technology could be partly to blame for this controversial question of ethics.

“This is crossing the boundary into the inevitable results of when people use technology without guidance or conscience. And the trouble is that even reprehensible people can do so,” Ablow told the media.

After her cesarean birth, Rajo’s womb ruptured and she suffered severe internal bleeding.

Rajo and Balla, 73, farmers who have not received any education, say they did not know it was high risk to have a baby at their age, and were never warned of any complications by their doctor.

The doctor who performed the IVF treatments, Anurag Bishnoi, says Rajo’s medical state has nothing to do with his care or her pregnancy so late in life.

"Even though Rajo's health is deteriorating, at least she will die in peace. She does not have to face the stigma of being barren," Bishnoi told The Sun.

Ablow said he believes that after this incident, Bishnoi should be prevented from being able to make these kinds of medical decisions.

“This is not a doctor; this person should not be regarded as a doctor and stripped of any credentials regarding him as medical professional. He is a co-conspirator in a medical experiment,” Ablow said.

The National Fertility Centre in Haryana, where Rajo received her treatments, was criticized for helping another Indian woman, Bhateri Devi, give birth to triplets through IVF when the woman was 66. The center claims no wrongdoing in the pregnancies of both women.

Besides physical complications, another concern is the soundness of mind at the advanced ages of these women, as well as their ability to rationally think through her feelings of wanting to be a mother.

“If this doctor doesn’t have convincing data on hand that these women are competent to make medical decisions, then him impregnating them artificially should be viewed as an assault and treated criminally,” Ablow said.

“These are women who put their own feelings about wanting to have children, maybe even regret for not having them earlier, ahead of any concerns about the development of their children,” he said.

Aside from the physical health risks to a child being born to an elderly mother, the potential for psychological damage could be significant.

“These children have to live with people who make irrational decisions based on their well being with no concern for others, which is something no one wants in a parent, Ablow said. “Later on, it is likely that these children will be anxious when they understand how old their parents are and that they may not survive very long — and that will have its own psychological impact.”

IVF mother died in Caesarean surgery without seeing baby

A Nurse who spent years undergoing IVF treatment died after suffering brain damage giving birth and never saw the baby she had longed for, an inquest was told today.

Joanne Lockham had an emergency Caesarean operation to deliver her son but surgeons accidentally starved her brain of oxygen for as long as 30 minutes, it was claimed.

Mrs Lockham, 45, and her husband Peter had been through several rounds of failed IVF treatment when she finally became pregnant. Her baby was six days overdue when she went to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury to have labour induced on 9 October 2007.

Coroner Richard Hulett told the inquest in Amersham today that surgeons had intended to give Mrs Lockham an epidural but because her labor was taking so long it was decided at 6pm to give her a general anesthesia.

Mrs Lockham sobbed to midwives as she was told of the change of plans but was assured that she would soon be holding her first child in her arms.However, problems arose in the operation theater after Mrs Lockham went under anesthesia.

The jury heard that three attempts were made to give her oxygen via a tube before it was eventually believed to have been successful.

However, within moments of the birth, Mrs Lockham suffered a cardiac arrest.

When a consultant anesthetist arrived at the hospital at 7.30pm after being paged because of the complication, he was unhappy with the placement of the tube and removed it.

Dawn Swaffer, who assisted the anesthetist despite not having been medically trained, broke down in tears as she told the inquest how the consultant was "not happy with its placement".

Asked if the intubation had been successful she added: "From my point of view, it was possibly not correct."

Mrs Lockham was transferred to the hospital's intensive care unit but was certified dead two days later after sustaining irreversible brain damage.

Her husband Peter is now bringing up their son Finn alone at their home in Wendover, Buckinghamshire.

A post-mortem examination concluded that she died as a result of a lack of oxygen to the brain resulting in cardio-respiratory arrest, with a second cause as multi organ failure.

The case continues.

Bulls win Again....

Why Maradona Loves The Vuvuzela!!!

Maradona.........finds new exciting use for his Vuvuzela!

Never Give Up!

Afghanistan & USA

You Broke Your Collarbone?

Unbelievable grab from a highway police camera!

Hila Kay Rakh Dey!!!

Learn the Diski Dance steps for the Soccer World Cup 2010

It happens only in Africa!

Now the Afghan-Pakistan war suddenly makes sense!

The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter
the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits -- including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium -- are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials
believe.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.

American and Afghan officials agreed to discuss the mineral discoveries at a difficult moment in the war in Afghanistan. The American-led offensive in Marja in southern Afghanistan has achieved only limited gains. Meanwhile, charges of corruption and favoritism continue to plague the Karzai government, and Mr. Karzai seems increasingly embittered toward the White House.

So the Obama administration is hungry for some positive news to come out of Afghanistan. Yet the American officials also recognize that the mineral discoveries will almost certainly have a double-edged impact.

Instead of bringing peace, the newfound mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country.

The corruption that is already rampant in the Karzai government could also be amplified by the new wealth, particularly if a handful of well-connected oligarchs, some with personal ties to the president, gain control of the resources. Just last year, Afghanistan’s minister of mines was accused by American officials of accepting a $30 million bribe to award China the rights to develop its copper mine. The minister has since been replaced.

Endless fights could erupt between the central government in Kabul and provincial and tribal leaders in mineral-rich districts. Afghanistan has a national mining law, written with the help of advisers from the World Bank, but it has never faced a serious challenge.

“No one has tested that law; no one knows how it will stand up in a fight between the central government and the provinces,” observed Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business and leader of the Pentagon team that discovered the deposits.

At the same time, American officials fear resource-hungry China will try to dominate the development of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, which could upset the United States, given its heavy investment in the region. After winning the bid for its Aynak copper mine in Logar Province, China clearly wants more, American officials said.

Another complication is that because Afghanistan has never had much heavy industry before, it has little or no history of environmental protection either. “The big question is, can this be developed in a responsible way, in a way that is environmentally and socially responsible?” Mr. Brinkley said. “No one knows how this will work.”

With virtually no mining industry or infrastructure in place today, it will take decades for Afghanistan to exploit its mineral wealth fully. “This is a country that has no mining culture,” said Jack Medlin, a geologist in the United States Geological Survey’s international affairs program. “They’ve had some small artisanal mines, but now there could be some very, very large mines that will require more than just a gold pan.”

The mineral deposits are scattered throughout the country, including in the southern and eastern regions along the border with Pakistan that have had some of the most intense combat in the American-led war against the Taliban insurgency.

The Pentagon task force has already started trying to help the Afghans set up a system to deal with mineral development. International accounting firms that have expertise in mining contracts have been hired to consult with the Afghan Ministry of Mines, and technical data is being prepared to turn over to multinational mining companies and other potential foreign investors. The Pentagon is helping Afghan officials arrange to start seeking bids on mineral rights by next fall, officials said.

“The Ministry of Mines is not ready to handle this,” Mr. Brinkley said. “We are trying to help them get ready.”

Like much of the recent history of the country, the story of the discovery of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is one of missed opportunities and the distractions of war.

In 2004, American geologists, sent to Afghanistan as part of a broader reconstruction effort, stumbled across an intriguing series of old charts and data at the library of the Afghan Geological Survey in Kabul that hinted at major mineral deposits in the country. They soon learned that the data had been collected by Soviet mining experts during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, but cast aside when the Soviets withdrew in 1989.

During the chaos of the 1990s, when Afghanistan was mired in civil war and later ruled by the Taliban, a small group of Afghan geologists protected the charts by taking them home, and returned them to the Geological Survey’s library only after the American invasion and the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

“There were maps, but the development did not take place, because you had 30 to 35 years of war,” said Ahmad Hujabre, an Afghan engineer who worked for the Ministry of Mines in the 1970s.

Armed with the old Russian charts, the United States Geological Survey began a series of aerial surveys of Afghanistan’s mineral resources in 2006, using advanced gravity and magnetic measuring equipment attached to an old Navy Orion P-3 aircraft that flew over about 70 percent of the country.

The data from those flights was so promising that in 2007, the geologists returned for an even more sophisticated study, using an old British bomber equipped with instruments that offered a three-dimensional profile of mineral deposits below the earth’s surface. It was the most comprehensive geologic survey of Afghanistan ever conducted.

The handful of American geologists who pored over the new data said the results were astonishing.

But the results gathered dust for two more years, ignored by officials in both the American and Afghan governments. In 2009, a Pentagon task force that had created business development programs in Iraq was transferred to Afghanistan, and came upon the geological data. Until then, no one besides the geologists had bothered to look at the information — and no one had sought to translate the technical data to measure the potential economic value of the mineral deposits.

Soon, the Pentagon business development task force brought in teams of American mining experts to validate the survey’s findings, and then briefed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Mr. Karzai.

So far, the biggest mineral deposits discovered are of iron and copper, and the quantities are large enough to make Afghanistan a major world producer of both, United States officials said. Other finds include large deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing superconducting steel, rare earth elements and large gold deposits in Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan.

Just this month, American geologists working with the Pentagon team have been conducting ground surveys on dry salt lakes in western Afghanistan where they believe there are large deposits of lithium. Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni Province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large of those of Bolivia, which now has the world’s largest known lithium reserves.

For the geologists who are now scouring some of the most remote stretches of Afghanistan to complete the technical studies necessary before the international bidding process is begun, there is a growing sense that they are in the midst of one of the great discoveries of their careers.

“On the ground, it’s very, very, promising,” Mr. Medlin said. “Actually, it’s pretty amazing.”

Incredible Creatives!!!!

Women considering abortions offered USD 4000 to keep their babies

Pregnant women in the north of the country who can prove economic difficulty will be given €250 a month for 18 months.

The government-sponsored policy was a key campaign promise of Roberto Formignoni, the centre-Right governor of the Lombardy region, who was elected in regional polls in March. Despite heavy budget cuts, Mr Formignoni said €5 million had been set aside to fund the scheme, which would apply to women who earned less than €23,000 a year and had other children to support.

The move was dismissed by pro-choice activists as propaganda. Critics questioned how women would cope once the anti-abortion "bonus" ran out after a year and a half.

Cinzia Sasso, a feminist writer in Milan, wrote on the website of La Repubblica that the money set aside would only help 1,000 women.

A spokesman for the Italian Bishops' Conference hailed the new policy, saying: "Anything that respects life is to be applauded."

Abortion was legalised in Italy in 1978.

Dozens of woman are having abortions following fertility treatment

Data released under the Freedom of Information Act has shown that an average of 80 abortions are carried out in England and Wales a year on women who have undergone IVF treatment.

Doctors have said they are surprised at the figures considering the expense and difficulty that many couples go through when having fertility treatment.

However critics said women were treating babies like 'designer goods'.

Some women said they were pressured into IVF by their partners and others said they aborted their pregnancy after their relationship broke down.

Around half of the abortions are carried out for women aged between 18 and 34, who are less likely to suffer complications in their pregnancies or conceive babies with abnormalities, raising the question that they may have had abortions for 'social reasons'.

Four in ten women who undergo IVF are under the age of 35.

Around 12,000 women give birth in Britain following fertility treatment and about 200,000 abortions are carried out a year in England.

Prof Bill Ledger, a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates fertility treatment, said: "I had no idea there were so many post-IVF abortions and each one is a tragedy."

The figures were released by the HFEA and show that in some of the cases the fertility treatment had been funded by the NHS.

Selective reductions, where some of the foetuses in a multiple pregnancy are terminated to reduce the risk to the children and mother, are included in the figures.

Ann Furedi, head of the BPAS, formerly known as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said it was likely that every doctor carrying out abortions had treated at least one woman who had IVF treatment only to change her mind when it was successful.

She said: "For infertile people, overcoming the problem becomes a goal in itself."

Ann Widdecombe, a former Conservative MP, said women who underwent IVF and then terminated the pregnancy for social reasons were treating babies like 'designer goods'.

She added that if the law were applied properly these women would not be allowed to terminate.

Most abortions are carried out under section C of the Act which says that the pregnancy was not beyond 24 weeks and that continuing the pregnancy would put the woman's life at greater risk than terminating it or would involve greater risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the woman.

A spokesman for the HFEA said: “IVF is not a procedure to be undertaken lightly and we know what it means personally to the many women who make this decision every year.

"The HFEA does not regulate terminations of pregnancies and has no powers in relation to activities outside those described in the Act. All patients who undergo IVF are assessed, as are the implications for any child that might be born, in advance of the decision to treat." ‬

I miss Bill Clinton!

It doesn't matter what party you belong to - this is hilarious.

From a show on Canadian TV, there was a black comedian who said he misses Bill Clinton.

"Yep, that's right - I miss Bill Clinton! He was the closest thing we ever got to having a black man as President.

Number 1 - He played the sax.

Number 2 - He smoked weed.

Number 3 - He had his way with ugly white women.

Even now? Look at him; his wife works, and he doesn't! And,he gets a check from the government every month.

Manufacturers announced today that they will be stocking America's shelves this week with "Clinton Soup," in honor of one of the nations' distinguished men - It consists primarily of a weenie in hot water!

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Chrysler Corporation is adding a new car to its line to honor Bill Clinton. The Dodge Drafter will be built in Canada.
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When asked what he thought about foreign affairs, Clinton replied, "I don't know, I never had one."
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The Clinton revised judicial oath:

"I solemnly swear to tell the truth as I know it, the whole truth as I believe it to be, and nothing but what I think you need to know."
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Clinton will be recorded in history as the only President to do Hanky Panky between the Bushes."

Meet the frozen sperm siblings born 15 years after their father was left infertile from cancer

As a family photograph, it is hardly out of the ordinary - two-year-old Mariella hugs her baby brother Herbie.

Yet for parents Ian and Alison Morris, it is a reminder that these are the children they never thought they could have.

Mariella and seven-month-old Herbie were born using Mr Morris's frozen sperm, stored for an astonishing 13 years after cancer treatment left him infertile.

Following his successful battle against the disease, the couple had several unsuccessful attempts at starting a family using IVF and were close to giving up in despair.

But one final try, in February 2007, worked and Mariella was born the following October.

Incredibly, the couple then had a second success last year with Herbie, by which time Mr Morris's sperm had been frozen for 15 years.

Mrs Morris, 37, said: 'I thought I'd never be a mum so to have our two miracle frozen babies really is the most wonderful thing.'

Mr Morris, 49, a design engineer, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in March 1994, three years after the couple married.

His wife, a buyer for a television shopping channel, said: 'We were just so shocked. The level of cancer in cells in his body was so high that the doctors said they were amazed he was still standing.'

Fortunately, Mr Morris's brother Barry was the perfect match for a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

Before the treatment, which involved chemotherapy, doctors warned him to have his sperm frozen as he would be left infertile.

After Mr Morris's recovery, the couple, of Grantham, Lincolnshire, decided to try for a family in 2002.

Mrs Morris said: 'We had been really hopeful when we had our first try at IVF as we knew there was nothing wrong with me, and we were using the frozen sperm. So when it didn't work we were devastated.'

A second and third attempt failed before they went to specialist clinic Care Fertility in Nottingham for a last try.

Mrs Morris said: 'We only had two embryos of good enough quality so we knew we didn't have much of a chance. So when I did a pregnancy test and saw the positive blue line, I just couldn't believe my eyes.

'I went for a scan at six weeks... when I saw the tiny heartbeat on the screen I just burst into tears.'

The record for a live birth from frozen sperm is 21 years, in Manchester in 2002.