@Onome_Benson_ People who set aside sentiments, and put forward their arguments from logical standpoint, buttressed with facts>>>
Thank you for this well-articulated argument, Onome.
PREGNANCY AND MISSING RIBS.
CAN THEY COEXIST?... WALK WITH ME AND LEARN.
Let us separate truth from fear. And let us do it gently. And clearly. And without spectacle..First, the question that keeps circling social media, and dinner tables, and whispered WhatsApp groups: Can a woman who has had ribs removed get pregnant?
Yes. She can.
Removing ribs does not remove the uterus. It does not evict the ovaries. It does not cancel conception. If the reproductive organs are intact and functioning, pregnancy is possible. And indeed, many women with dramatic body modifications have conceived, and carried, and birthed children.
But... and this is where the conversation must slow down pregnancy is not merely about getting pregnant.
It is about how safely the body can adapt to pregnancy. And adaptation is where the ribs quietly matter. Because the rib cage is not ornamental. It is not an accessory. It is architecture. It protects the heart and the lungs.
It allows the lungs to expand when oxygen demand rises, as it always does in pregnancy.
It supports posture as the uterus grows upward, and outward, and insists on space.
And in late pregnancy, it flares, subtly, obediently to make room for the crowded miracle within.
During the third trimester, the chest widens. Nature planned it so.
But when ribs have been surgically removed, that widening may be limited. And the body, always polite, tries to compensate anyway.
This is where the possible difficulties begin. Not certainties. Possibilities. But real ones.
There may be breathlessness, more than expected because pregnancy already asks the lungs to work overtime.
There may be chest or upper abdominal pain, because soft tissues were never designed to carry skeletal responsibility.
There may be back pain and imbalance, exaggerated by the loss of rib support that once steadied the upper body.
There may be discomfort from organs shifting upward into a space that no longer welcomes them easily.
And so these pregnancies often require closer monitoring, not because disaster is inevitable, but because vigilance is wise.
Labour, too, may ask more of the body.
Breathing control may be harder.
Fatigue may arrive sooner. And the threshold for assisted delivery or caesarean section may be lower not out of fear, but out of respect for physiology.
This does not mean vaginal birth is impossible. It means care must be individualised. It means assumptions must be left at the door.
And so, my gentle counsel, as a gynaecologist is this:
Women’s bodies are not trends.
And pregnancy is not a competition in endurance.
If a woman who has had ribs removed becomes pregnant, she deserves early antenatal care.
She deserves consultant-led follow-up.
She deserves respiratory and musculoskeletal assessment if needed. She deserves a care plan shaped around her body, not moral judgement, not curiosity, not spectacle. And if a woman is considering rib removal for cosmetic reasons, she deserves honesty before the scalpel ever touches skin. She deserves to know how pregnancy asks the body to stretch, and bend, and remember. She deserves truth about breathing, about pain, about the long echoes of surgery.
Because the body remembers everything.
And pregnancy asks it to forgive.
Yes, pregnancy may still happen.
Yes, babies have been born safely.
And yes, the body can be astonishingly resilient. But as doctors, our role is not to shame.
It is to inform. It is to protect.
And it is to walk with women through their choices, with science in one hand, and compassion in the other.
Always both.
Sometimes people ask how I prioritize my time across multiple interests. But when I ask what makes prioritization hard for them, I realize we’re not talking about the same thing at all. Choosing between good and bad is not prioritizing. That’s just common sense.
Prioritizing begins when you must choose between good and good, when several paths are worthy and you still have to amputate one. That’s what my mind recognizes as an actual prioritization problem. If you need to study but keep drifting back to TikTok, that’s not prioritization. That’s a discipline problem. If you say you want to write an application but never sit down for three hours, that isn’t prioritization either. That’s procrastination. Each requires a different remedy. A baseline of discipline is assumed before prioritization even enters the chat.
Sound judgment and decisiveness are the engines of prioritization. And you develop judgment by being exposed to hard tradeoffs, by living a life where you’re constantly choosing between Scylla and Charybdis. You learn it by having several viable options and needing to assess them honestly. The wound of choosing is the price of having options.
Discipline, on the other hand, is the answer to what it seems most people I discuss with, describe as prioritization problems. They tend to elevate obvious distractions to the status of “viable choices.” Even if you’re addicted to a distraction, you can indulge it knowing that you’re essentially self-sabotaging. That diagnosis of your impulse over intention is far more accurate than calling it a prioritization issue. Because prioritization is not really a moral issue, it’s simply an executive skill.
- Chelsea win
- Estevao goal
- Delap goal
- Enzo assist
- James assist
- Sanchez cleansheet
- Fofana & Chalobah solid
- Caicedo & Cucurella masterclasses
- Kounde own goal
- Yamal stinker
- Barcelona destroyed
- Still the World Champions
- Rival fans tears
FOOTBALL WON TODAY!!!
No Rinu, NO.
You’re fighting the wrong battle. Telling young people to boycott NYSC is not the solution you think it is, because at the end of the day, they are the ones who will suffer for it.
I’m fairly knowledgeable about graduate employment in Nigeria, and I know for a fact that companies are mandated by law to employ only graduates who have an NYSC discharge certificate or a valid exemption letter.
If anything, the real fight should be at the top, demanding that the government scrap or reform the NYSC requirement, not encouraging young people to boycott it. Because the reality is, if they don’t do NYSC, they will hardly get jobs here. They’ll be the ones who face hunger, joblessness, and struggle for survival.
Boycotting NYSC might sound smart on the surface, but on a deeper look, companies will simply hire from the pool of graduates who did complete NYSC to avoid legal complications. And trust me, plenty of people will still go for the program. Refusing to serve will only reduce your own chances in an already competitive labour market.
What we should be pushing for is making NYSC non-compulsory, not encouraging people to sabotage their own futures.
Also, this entire boycott argument comes from a place of privilege. The people who can afford to boycott are the ones who already have alternative means of survival. But the average Nigerian graduate who is struggling in a job market where even NYSC-certified applicants can’t find work cannot bear that risk.
Dear President @realDonaldTrump,
Referring to a sovereign nation as a “disgraced nation” on social media is both undiplomatic and unhelpful. The United States itself faces significant internal challenges, an average of about 45,738 gun deaths annually (based on data from 2019 to 2023), deep-seated racial inequality, and food insecurity affecting over 47 million Americans, many of whom are children, as recently highlighted by former President @BarackObama.
While I join in condemning the senseless killings of Christian and other religious worshippers in Nigeria, and appreciate America’s concern for human rights, it is equally important to respect our nation’s sovereignty and engage with dignity. Constructive dialogue, not public denigration, is what strengthens international cooperation.
To our so-called "leaders":
The time to act is now.
Enough is enough, of the ceaseless killings of innocent citizens.
Enough is enough, of our collapsing healthcare system.
Enough is enough, of the growing number of our people trapped in poverty.
If we truly have leaders, in the real sense of the word, then the well-being, safety, and dignity of every Nigerian should be the first and highest priority.