Wednesday, June 30, 2010

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.'