Home for Christmas: After months in intensive care, little fighters give their parents a perfect present

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By ALISON SMITH SQUIRE and TAMARA COHEN

Finley Burton: Survived after his body was 'frozen' by surgeons to slow down his heart beat


After you’ve beaten the toughest odds simply to survive, every day is Christmas.

But tomorrow will be extra special for these babies, at home with their parents for the first time after months in intensive care.

Born prematurely or facing serious complications, nearly every day of their short lives has been a battle.

But as Christmas Day dawns, they will be snuggled up at home where they belong, for a day of celebration their parents hardly dared dream of.

FINLEY BURTON
Just a few months ago, Finley burton lay paralysed on a hospital bed, his life hanging in the balance.

At ten weeks, he suffered complications after an operation to repair a large hole in his heart.


Wired up: Finley in his hospital bed wired up to lots of machines


His body went into ectopic tachycardia, a rapid heart beat of up to 200 beats a minute that can be fatal.

Desperate to save him, doctors used a pioneering technique, ‘freezing’ him to slow down his out-of-control heart rate.

Yesterday, Finley, now ten months, was enjoying the snow with his parents Aaron, 32, and Donna, 28, at their home in Easington, Co. Durham.


‘We really thought we were going to lose him,’ said his mother. ‘It’s a miracle that he survived and we can now enjoy our first family Christmas.’

BURDEN TWINS
Dressed in matching red outfits, the six-month-old Burden twins have made it home in time for their first Christmas too.

Parents Lee Burden, 35, and Amanda Staplehurst, 31, feared the worst when Amelia-Hope was born at 23 weeks, weighing a mere 1lb 2oz.


Amelia-Hope Burden and her brother, Arthur, who weighed 1lb 2oz and 1lb 4oz respectively with their mother, Amanda


Tiny: When she was born, Amelia-Hope weighed just 1lb 2oz. Her twin brother came ten days later and weighed 1lb 4oz


Arthur followed ten days later, at 1lb 4oz, and their battle for life began.

Somehow, their fighting spirit won through and they became the youngest premature twins to survive in the UK.

They were allowed to leave hospital only last month.

‘Bringing them home is the best gift we could have asked for,’ said their mother at the family home in Bournemouth.

JENKINSON TRIPLETS


Three times the fun: Rebecca and Iain Jenkinson with Gabriella, Alexander and Zachary


Happiness is trebled in the Jenkinson household this Christmas. triplets gabriella, zachary and alex were born two months premature after being conceived naturally in a 750,000-to-one chance.

While the first two arrived safely, Alex had a serious heart condition that needed surgery and mother Rebecca had to have a life-saving blood transfusion.

After the drama of last December’s birth, Rebecca and husband Iain are relishing every moment together at their home in Warrington.

‘All three of them are happy and healthy,’ Mrs Jenkinson said. ‘They’re my Christmas miracle babies.’


Merry Christmas 2010 !



source: dailymail
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The City star banned from fashion website after shocked readers complain about her stick-thin frame

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By MAYSA RAWI

Weighty issue: Allie Crandell models a black leather dress by BCBG on the Revolve website, but has been banned after readers complained she was too thin


The City star Allie Crandell has been banned from a popular American fashion retailer after readers complained about her skinny frame.

Revolve clothing featured Crandell on their online boutique looking painfully thin as she models a collection by BCBG Max Azria.

One image in particular showing her tiny waist and arms sparked outrage among shoppers.


Painfully thin: Allie has attracted attention in the past over her weight while she was on American show The City


One shopper wrote: 'As a normal, healthy woman with a healthy body type. How can I possibly imagine what this dress would look like on me when it is shown on an emaciated frame?'

Revolve have promised not to feature Crandell on their site until she puts on weight.

The spokesperson said: 'We are working closely with both the model and her agent to get her to a healthier size.



Doll-sized: Revolve have said they are working with both the model and her agent to get her to a healthier size


'She won't be appearing in any of our new product batches or in any of our fashion editorial photos moving forward until the issue is adequately addressed.

'We have been attempting to respect the privacy of the model in question while dealing with the issue on our end.'

In 2008, Crandell became a part of the MTV reality show The City.

In one episode, fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone accused her of being too thin before the model goes on to defend herself by insisting she eats healthily.

Although she played a major role in the first season, she has only appeared twice in the second half.

She also starred in Shayne Ward's 2006 No Promises video.

Crandell confirmed via her personal Twitter account that she will no longer be appearing on the show, stating, 'I'm done with the City forever.'

source: dailymail
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Looking fabulous at 50: Carol Vorderman shows why she refuses to fret about her body

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By EMILY ANDREWS

Birthday girl: Carol Vorderman is fabulous at 50


In her younger days she sometimes counted her imperfections. Today, as she turns 50, Carol Vorderman prefers to count her blessings.

And as her elegant red gown shows, she is a woman who has been very blessed indeed.

‘When you’re in your 20s and 30s you often think “I don’t like this bit, I don’t like that bit, I wish I could shave a few inches off here”,’ she said.

‘But when you’re older you’re just blooming grateful for what you’ve got!

‘For instance, I’ve learned that women spend lots of time worrying about cellulite but men just don’t see it, particularly as they get older themselves and their eyesight goes too!

‘At this age you don’t beat yourself up any more - what’s the point?

‘I’m comfortable in my skin, I’m really happy and that’s all that counts.’

The mother of two, who co-hosted Channel Four’s Countdown for 26 years, has been busy concentrating on figures other than her own since she left the show.


She is chairman of a Conservative Party Task Force that will report in the new year on improving maths education.

And she is running an online maths school for children up to age 12, www.themathsfactor.com, which operates with a team of 12 from Bristol.

Then there is the delight of family life in Somerset with her daughter Katie, 18, son Cameron, 13, and mother Jean, 82.

Christmas, coinciding with her birthday, is always a favourite time.

‘I was called Carol because I was born on Christmas Eve... no surprises there...and I just love this time of year,’ she said.

The year ahead, it seems, will be Carol’s year of living dangerously. She wants to use her 51st year to do 50 things she’s always dreamed of, such as learning to ski, completing a scuba diving course and getting her pilot’s licence.

‘I’m actually a real daredevil and I love engines, as I read engineering at Cambridge, so I want to learn to fly and go wing-walking and do some aerobatics,’ she said.

‘This will be an aviation year - I want to go ballooning in Switzerland and to see the final space shuttle go up.

‘There are all these things I’ve always wanted to do, but in the past the kids have been too young or I’ve been working too hard.

‘Now we can do all these things together and I have a lot more time.

‘Katie’s on her gap year before university so hopefully she can come with me to the States to learn to fly and I’ve got lots more things planned.

‘I was the kid on free school meals from a single parent family in the 60s who managed to get to Cambridge and have made the most of everything I could by working hard since then.

‘And as this year ends, I could burst with excitement. I know that a new chapter is beginning.’

Hard work, she often says, has been the key to her success. And it seems that also applies to her fabulous fiftysomething figure. ‘I do have to watch what I eat,’ she admitted.


Carol & Katie Vorderman



Carol Vorderman - Daybreak 10Nov2010


source: dailymail
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Myths and truth on contraception and health

A health survey in the UK has revealed that myths about contraception may be widespread. These myths on contraceptives have been around for thousands of years. Other myths surround the use of oral contraceptive pills. 10% of the women surveyed believe that it takes many years to regain fertility after discontinuation of the pill. Others believe that the pill could protect them against HIV.

20% of women, who took part in the survey by market research company Opinion Health, sponsored by Bayer Schering Pharma said they had heard of kitchen items including bread, cling film and even chicken skin, being used as alternative contraceptives. Others had heard food items such as kebabs, Coca-cola or crisps could be effective as oral contraceptives. The survey covered 1,000 women aged 18 to 50 years from UK.

Ancient contraceptive methods varied from the use of crocodile dung and honey before sex to sea sponges and beeswax after. The most interesting was alcohol distilled from stewed beaver's testicles. It seems that a variety of unsafe and unproven methods still exist in modern Britain, as the survey shows.

Many herbal medicines sold ‘over the counter’ today are claimed by herbalists to act as abortifacients. Some examples are brewer's yeast, vitamin C, wild carrot, blue cohosh, black cohosh, slippery elm, nutmeg, mugwort, papaya, vervain, common rue, ergot, saffron, pennyroyal and tansy.

There is a myth that douching with fluids immediately after intercourse works as a contraceptive, but it is untrue. Due to flow of the fluids and the structure of the female reproductive tract, douching will actually speed up spread of semen towards the uterus. A slight spermicidal effect may occur if the douche solution is acidic, but acidic liquids cause other complications too.

There is a popular belief that unripe papayas can cause miscarriage due to its latex content that causes uterine contractions leading to a miscarriage. This has never been proven, though papaya seed extracts in large doses were found to have a contraceptive effect on rats and monkeys, but in small doses they had no effect on the unborn babies.

There are many more funny ideas and practices prevalent even in modern times like the use of toothpaste as contraceptive and urinating after sex to prevent pregnancy. There are also reports of women drinking solutions containing mercury, arsenic and other toxic substances for avoiding or terminating pregnancy. These poisonous substances can disrupt the reproductive system and some cause even cancer.

The herbs tansy and pennyroyal were most popular in the ancient folklore as preventive medication for abortion, but these induce abortion by poisoning women. Levels of toxic chemicals in tansy and pennyroyal are too high to damage liver, kidneys and other vital internal organs. Maybe for this reason, maternal deaths from postpartum complications were very high.

Pennyroyal oil is highly concentrated, dangerously toxic and even in small doses it can cause death. Many serious health complications have been reported from attempts to use pennyroyal oil for self-induced abortion.

Tansy, a medicinal herb, has been in the Irish folklore since mid 1800s, but tansy is so toxic that an overdose can be fatal. However, traditionally, tansy was often used for its emmenagogue effects (ability to cause menstruation in pregnant women) to end an unwanted pregnancy. Pregnant women should avoid this herb and medications containing it.

Various effective methods of birth control were known in the ancient world, in contrast to ignorance of these methods in wide segments of the population of early modern Europe. Arab physicians of Medieval Periods documented extensive lists of birth control practices including the use of abortifacients in their medical encyclopedias. Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi listed 176 in his Hawi (10th century) and Avicenna listed 20 abortifacients in The Canon of Medicine (11th century).

Some European women used beeswax to avoid pregnancy, before the condom, initially made of a length of animal intestine, appeared in the 17th century. Asian women are said to have used oiled paper as a cervical cap to avoid pregnancy. The Greek gynaecologist Soranus (2nd century) suggested that women drink water that blacksmiths had used to cool iron to avoid pregnancy.

Some herbalists claim that black cohosh tea is effective as an abortifacient. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (common names: Chinese hibiscus, China rose and shoe flower), known in Ayurveda as a contraceptive, may have anti-estrogenic properties.

Ancient Egyptian women had used a pessary (a vaginal suppository) made of various acidic substances and lubricated with honey or oil to kill sperms. But, as sperm cell could not have been discovered until Anton van Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope in the late 17th century, the Egyptians could not have had knowledge of the details of conception.

Silphium (of aromatic parsley plants family), a powerful abortifacient reported to have low levels of side effects, was harvested to extinction around the 1st century. The ancient Greek colony of Cyrene in those times had an economy based entirely on the production and export of silphium.

Instead of depending on myths, popular beliefs and quacks, on matters like preventing pregnancy, abortion, and related matters of health, women should always consult qualified physicians and use only those contraceptives and medicines to avoid unwanted health problems.

Yoga on the beach

Yoga on the Beach, originally uploaded by geckonia.