Hi

I ended up having monthly acupuncture until 36 weeks. My practitioner is quite conservative too - we then weekly for 36, 37, 38 - at the 38w3d appt we talked about induction and as the midwife had cleared me a couple of days earlier to start doing whatever I wanted to encourage labour - we decided to put just a couple of needles into "those" spots. He told me (and I knew also) that nothing would happen if bubs wasn't ready anyway.

So, Wed morning 10am was my appt - I had coffee with the girls at work at 9am and joked about having acupuncture at 10, waters breaking at 11am, and then a baby by midnight.

Went home - went to loo around 2.30pm for a wee, wiped and then thought, OMG I have wee'd myself again and didn't even feel it - DER my waters had just broken !!! I was in a good place for it to happen

So although contractions didn't start straight away and I negotiated going home etc - they started the next day around 2.40 (24 hours) and Zander was born at 8.58pm that night totally drug free and a-la-natural.

I strongly believe the acupuncture kept everything strong and prepared my body - contractions once they started were regular and intensified text book. I also took a raspberry leaf tincture that he made for me from 37 weeks.

Good luck - hope this helps someone else have the dream birth I had I know it could just be co-incidence - but I really feel it contributed greatly!!