Pinning my hopes on alternative therapy....

So had my first acupuncture session ever today. Apparently studies show that women who have acupuncture in the last few weeks of pregnancy have shorter labours. Hell, sign me up!

Luckily there's a Chinese Doctor at the end of our road (of course there is, it is South Manchester after all!) so off I waddled this evening for my first appointment.

Took this picture in the waiting room of lots of Chinese herb paraphernalia. Wish blip had a scratch and sniff facility as the smell was quite something in there!

The session itself involved lots of tiny needles being placed in "energy points" around my body. Then they covered me in towels, put a heater on and left me to sleep for half an hour in a dark room - with a bell by my side to ring if I was in distress. My mind whirred for the first 10mins (mainly going "errrr what's all this about?" ) then I fell into a deep sleep. Woke up feeling energised. Honestly felt great and very calm. Am not generally calm so this was brand new.

I've got another session on Saturday but jury's out on whether this stuff works. Guess I can only really report back post-labour on that! I'll let you know.