A mother has no recollection of the birth of her first born because she was ASLEEP. Jody Robson, 24, from Birmingham, falls asleep for up to 11 days at a time and can take weeks to emerge from her stupor.
Although she has not been formally diagnosed, Jody believes she has Kleine Levin Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that sees those afflicted unable to rouse from sleep for days or even weeks on end. Jody’s episodes are so severe that she has no recollection of several Christmases and even slept through the birth of her first child.
The mum-of-two said: “One moment I’ve closed my eyes and the next I’ve woken up and it’s two or three weeks later. “I’ve missed holidays and my sister’s eighteenth birthday because I was in an episode.”
Jody’s first experience with KLS was when she was just 12 and living in Alicante, Spain. Excited for a sleepover at a friend’s house, Jody arrived with a bag of toys, sweets and a change of clothes.
But that day she fell into a deep sleep and didn’t wake up for eight days. And when she finally woke from her slumber Jody couldn’t recognise her family or surroundings.
Chris Brown woke up early this morning pleading with fans to buy his new album, Royalty. His album is predicted to sell between 125-135k in its first week but it looks like that's not enough for him. He begged fans to buy the album to help him change the world, saying he works three times harder than any of his peers. See his tweets after the cut...
Heidi Loughlin, 32, discovered she had a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer after falling pregnant with her third child. Doctors discovered her cancer in September after she noticed a rash on her breast while feeding her baby son Tait.
She was given the option of terminating the pregnancy so she could begin aggressive chemotherapy. But she decided to keep her baby and begin a less aggressive form of treatment which is expected to start on Wednesday, December 23.
Her baby had to be born 12 weeks prematurely in order for her to be treated for cancer. The baby named Ally Louise Smith was delivered by C-section on December 11, weighing just 2lb 5oz but died on Saturday.
Ms Loughlin, from Portishead, north Somerset posted a poem dedicated to her daughter on her blog. In it the mother of three wrote:
"Yesterday afternoon our hearts broke in two. For we had to say goodbye to you.The pain in my body and heart and my soul feels it will consume me and leave me un-whole".
Writing on her blog after Ally's birth, the mother-of-three said she was "absolutely thrilled" to announce the baby had been born safely.
"She was born today via c section at 1237. She came out foot first and is breathing on her own. She weighs 2lb 5ozs. She has a Laughlin (sic) nose and she has more hair than me"
WHEN her hubby of ten years had to spend Christmas with his relatives in Nigeria, Tracy Akingbogun hoped he’d return with a special gift to make up for their time apart.
David, 43, had sorted out a present — for himself. He had secretly MARRIEDanother woman in Nigeria on Boxing Day.
Mum-of-four Tracy only discovered the shocking news through a friend months later — and kicked him out.
Heartbroken Tracy, also 43, says: “While I was at home with the kids missing him at Christmas, his present to himself was a new bride.
“I still can’t believe he did that to us after more than ten years together.
“I did some research and saw that the ceremony was a religious one and not a legal one. So he hadn’t committed bigamy.
“His dad had five wives during his lifetime, so I suppose David thought he could do that too.
“But not when he was living in the UK and not when he was married to me.”
Tracy, from Gravesend, Kent, adds: “This Christmas it will be just me and the children again, just like it was last year. But this time I’ll be over the moon that David isn’t with us.”
Tracy was a single mum to Cameron and Alysia — now 17 and 13 — when she met David in a nightclub while she was on a rare night out in March 2004.
She recalls: “I was watching a group of lads on the pull, but one of them wasn’t. He was just leaning against the bar enjoying himself. He saw me watching him and came over to chat.
“His name was David and he was really kind and gentle. He’d only arrived from Nigeria three months before.”
David moved into Tracy’s home just six weeks later and Tracy was delighted to discover she was pregnant.
Their son Kayodo, now 11, was born in December 2004 and they married two months later.
Tracy says: “It was a small ceremony with a few family and friends. David read out a poem and told me he really believed in me and our future together.
“From then on he called me ‘Wifey,’ his pet name for me.”
The next year the happy family went to Nigeria to meet David’s relatives.
Tracy says: “They were lovely to us and even went through the traditional ceremony of washing our feet when we arrived.”
Their second son Olalekan, now four, was born in December 2011.
Tracy busied herself bringing up her brood while David turned his hand to various businesses from buying and selling cars to running a market-stall. He also tried to set up an internet cafe.
But two years later she found messages between David and a Nigerian woman.
Tracy says: “One read: ‘When you were last here I wish I’d kissed you.’ I shouted at him, and wanted him to explain himself.
“He said she was someone he used to date before he came to the UK. He said it was nothing, they were just friends.
“I told David it was her or me. He said it was me, I was his wifey and that was that.
“Over the next few months he tried hard to show he meant it and we got back to normal.”
Then David announced he would have to go to Nigeria over the 2014 festive period. Tracy says: “I was furious. I told him he should be here for his sons — for our family. He kept insisting he had important family business.”
David flew out the day before Christmas Eve and Tracy was upset the family would be apart.
She says: “I was so angry with him, but I wasn’t going to let the children know that.
“It was Christmas so I was going to make it a good one.”
She messaged David, reminding him to call their boys on Christmas morning.
Tracy says: “David finally called at 9pm. I gave him an earful but let him speak to the children. I was so angry with him.
“On Boxing Day I didn’t hear from him, but I spoke to him and his family the next day and they were all friendly and normal.”
But, on David’s return, Tracy felt something had changed.
She says: “When he wasn’t away working he was on his laptop. He was hardly speaking to me or the boys. I would encourage him to spend time with them, but he’d snap at me and say he was busy.”
Tracy tried to make her family life as happy as possible but in May came a bolt out of the blue.
She got a message on Facebook from the partner of one of David’s friends in Nigeria, a woman Tracy had met when she visited.
She says: “The message read that he’d got married to another woman on Boxing Day — everyone knew apart from me. She didn’t think that was right.
“The world I loved had been whipped from beneath my feet. Tears streamed down my face. I’d known something was up.
“I confronted David but he denied it. He seemed so cool and calm. So I messaged her and said there must be a mistake.”
What came next wiped away any trace of doubt Tracy had.
Tearfully, she recalls: “She ended up sending me photos of the wedding ceremony via WhatsApp and confirmed it to me. There was no denying that.”
Shaking, Tracy managed to guess his Facebook password and logged in. There, she read messages between him and his new wife, the woman she’d caught him messaging two years before, who was also his ex-girlfriend.
Tracy says: “I was so angry I couldn’t speak. He couldn’t get married — he was my husband!
“I confronted him and he tried to deny it again but this time I told him I’d seen the photos and read the messages. I told him to pack his bags and get out.
“I don’t take calls from his family, as they were in on this and went to his wedding last Boxing Day while lying to me.
“He abandoned his children and me to get married to another woman. He’s made his choice and now he’s stuck with it.”
David said: “I can do what I want. It’s nobody’s business. What do you want me to do?”
20 year old Onyinyechi Ironkwe beat 23 different lovely ladies to emerge the winner of the 2015/2016 Miss Niger Delta queen.The contest which took place on Sunday 20th of December attracted top personnel in the state. The new queen who hail from Amaoba Oboro in Ikwuano LGA of Abia state is a final year student of the university of Port Harcourt, Bio Chemistry department.
According to a Facebook user who posted this online, this woman based in London had been sending money home (Ghana) to her relatives to build house for her, only for her to return home and discover that no piece of land was bought for her talk of building a house in her name.
She immediately turned mad after the incident paraded herself Unclad on the streets of Ghana -as bystanders videoed the incident.
This reportedly happened on Sunday, December 20, 2015.
Here are some censored screenshots gotten from the video posted online:
In Northern Ghana, the children of accused witches are often implicated and isolated along with their mothers in Ghana’s witch camps and witch sanctuaries.
Children are among those who populate the witch camps in Northern Ghana. These children are not at the sanctuaries because they were accused of witchcraft, they are there because their mothers or grandmothers were accused.
But from my observations, many of these children end up suffering as a result of the label of witchcraft applied to their mothers or grandmothers. The belief in child witches exist among the Dagomba and other ethnic communities in the Northern region, but it takes on a different dimension.
In 2012, I visited an orphanage in Sang, near Yendi. This orphanage provides shelter for children accused of witchcraft. Child witchcraft is perceived differently among the Dagomba. Child witches are not considered ‘little gods’ of the Bangwa, performing extraordinary things, but rather as the incarnation of evil and an ominous sign for their family.
Children who are born with disabilities or children whose mothers died after delivery are believed to be vectors of evil magic and are branded witches. I was informed that some family members kill or abandon such babies on an anthill or in a forest. Some of the children at the orphanage in Sang are those abandoned child witches, rescued and brought to the shelter by some well meaning individuals.
The circumstances of the children at the witchcraft sanctuaries are entirely a different, as children are staying in these sanctuaries because of their relationship with accused persons. Concerns about the rights and welfare of these children have been debated by different stakeholders mulling over how to improve living conditions in the sanctuaries.
Alleged witches and their children at Kukuo in Northern Ghana. Photo: Jane Hahn
Some of the children in the sanctuaries are living with their parents. Some were born at the camp. I met, during my field work, a woman at Gushiegu Sanctuary who was nursing a baby.
She became pregnant and gave birth to the baby while at the witch camp. The number of children in these sanctuaries varies from sanctuary to sanctuary. Gnani Witch Sanctuary has the highest number of children, because in Gnani there are more accused persons living with their families, including men, than in any other sanctuary.
There are accused women at the sanctuaries who are living alone because they have no children or grandchildren. Some women have children and grandchildren but none staying with them, because no one has been sent to help look after them.
I noticed that whether one lives with one’s children or grandchildren often depends on the position family members take on the accusation and whether one’s family members support the accusation or not. Children who support the accusation and banishment of their mothers do not visit their mothers, nor do they send their daughters to live with them.
Often that is because they fear that their children could be infected with witchcraft or be killed by their witch mother or grandmother. Also they fear that the children could be accused of harmful magic when they later return back to their communities.
The Dagomba believe that witchcraft powers can be inherited or transferred. Parents, often female parents and grandparents, can pass powers on to their children and grandchildren.
The Dagomba banish people convicted of witchcraft to prevent them from using the powers against other members of the family or community and also to prevent them from transferring their powers to others.
Some children who are sent to look after their grandmothers end up staying at the witch camps because of this concern. At the witch sanctuary in Kukuo, I met elderly women in their 90s who came to look after their grandmothers and stayed on after the grandmother died.
An anti-witchcraft poster from Ghana. Image: Monica Tetzlaff
Some children are living at the sanctuary because their fathers were accused. This is the case in Gnani camp, the only sanctuary that accommodates accused males. Some men who are accused of witchcraft and then banished from their communities relocate to the witch camp with their entire family, including wives and children. I observed that not all accused male parents were living with their families at the sanctuary. The accused male persons who relocate with their entire family are those who children are still very young, and still need parental care and support.
Accused fathers whose children are adults at the time of accusation and banishment do not usually relocate with their families and children. Male parents who are not living with their families are either those who do not have the means to accommodate or cater for them or those who intend to return back to their communities after some time.
The children I saw living with their accused fathers at Gnani Tingdang were either born there or were babies when their fathers relocated to Gnani. Children have become part of the phenomenon of witch sanctuaries in Ghana. The government of Ghana announced last year that it would abolish the witch camps, and it is important that the government factor into the process the rights and welfare of these children of witches who are now perceived as child witches.
25 year old Pixee Fox who became famous for removing her ribs to look like Jessica Rabbit has been warned she needs a corset to stay alive. After spending £80,000 on the surgery, doctors are warning her that her corset may need to be worn at all times to keep her organs in place. The model got the dream body she wanted after having six ribs removed for a thinner waist. For good measure she also had a boob job, facial interventions and a lift to her bottom. This allowed her to get a record-breaking 14-inch waist.
However the self-proclaimed "body modification artist" who has also compared herself to a "living cartoon" has been criticised by a health expert during an appearance on Romanian television.
The Swedish model had visited the doctor beforehand, but when interviewed by TV hosts Madalin Ionescu and Adelina Pestritu, he said he was concerned about the complications the surgery has on the body - adding that a corset was essential.
Pixee said: "It’s recommended to have something to compress your body to keep everything in place after the surgery and also to provide some protection.
"This corset was custom-made for me to fulfil that requirement."
But wearing the corset too much could have its own complications.
The medic added:"If a person wears it 24 hours a day, then their liver, kidneys and everything else are not going to be in their proper place."
The rapper who is currently estranged from his wife, Precious Jones, shared this pic of himself with a female friend having fun at the beach. He wrote "Good people, happy place"
Diane Rodriguez, a 33-year-old a transwoman who used to be a man has revealed she's expecting her first child with her transgender male partner. She and her partner Fernando Machado, 22, a transman who used to be a woman, met on social media two years ago. And now, they are about to become the first transgender couple in Ecuador to have a baby.
Fernando, from Venezuela, is three months pregnant and moved to live with Diane in Ecuador after meeting online.
Neither Diane nor Fernando has undergone surgery during their gender reassignment process, so becoming pregnant was still possible.
Upon announcing their decision to become transgender, Fernando was supported by his loved ones after explaining that he didn't feel comfortable being a woman. However Diane was rejected by her family, and even had a spell being homeless.
Diane said: "This was the wish of both of us and there was nothing biological or legal to stop us, so we decided to do it"
"We live as man and woman. I’m a transfeminine woman and Fernando is a transmasculine man. "The process to get here was complex for each of us."Knowing it’s our right, we decided to add another member to our family. "
