Shame prevents me from repeating what I said to my husband when he woke me in the early hours of Easter Monday to tell me who had won the Masters golf tournament. I should have been grateful. Three hours later he was delivering our fourth child on the kitchen floor.

After three induced deliveries at 42 weeks, and with a wedding to go to a fortnight after my April 9 due date, I did not want to be overdue again. With each previous pregnancy, I had tried some dubious ways of encouraging labour to start, including drinking raspberry leaf and having a curry and then sex. Nothing worked.

So, I called on a local Chinese doctor to ask if he could help. With regular hour-long acupuncture sessions and some herbs, he promised to get my baby to arrive on time. At 34 weeks, I booked my first session for the following week.

Each treatment over the next five weeks was roughly the same. I would lie on my left side with a pillow between my knees while Dr Herman Wang placed about eight very fine, thin needles at different places along my right leg between my knee and ankle.

Almost immediately after the treatments began I began to notice physical changes. The heartburn from which I had been suffering disappeared and the water retention in my legs lessened. At 38 weeks, Dr Wang gave me some herbs, to be taken twice a day with a pint of water. These were to act as a detox. By then, the only side-effect of my pregnancy was bad skin.

On the night of Easter Sunday (April 11) I went to bed a little earlier than usual, feeling and looking, as my husband kindly pointed out, “ready to pop”. Having been woken to be told the results of the golf at 12.30am, after which my husband went straight off to sleep, I got up to go to the toilet. I couldn’t get back to sleep and soon after that the contractions started.

When a regular pattern of contractions, roughly five minutes apart, had established itself, I woke my husband and phoned the hospital and my mum, who was coming over to babysit my other children. Between 2am and 3am the contractions became gradually stronger, making it impossible to rest and at 2.30am, almost in subconscious anticipation of future events, I got up and swept the kitchen floor.

I opened the door to my mum at 3.30am and went into the kitchen to collect my hospital bag. Another contraction came on as I bent to pick it up. I crouched and then lay on the floor, and couldn’t get up. The next five minutes are something of a blur. But, with my head resting on my husband’s walking boots, I was vaguely aware of my mum running up and down stairs for towels, my children creeping down to watch, and my husband issuing me with instructions given to him over the phone by the emergency services.

The contractions were now practically overlapping. I knew the baby was on its way yet inside I felt calm. My body had taken over. Without my even having to push, baby Affrika arrived, fast but healthy, at 3.35am.

The medical team arrived minutes later and took over. Apart from being in shock at the speed of the baby’s arrival, I felt great. No exhaustion from hours of pushing. My blood pressure was high and my new baby’s temperature below normal from having arrived on a cold stone kitchen floor. But after 24 hours in hospital for monitoring, we were both back home.

The recovery I made from this pregnancy was faster than from any of my others and I still look back on the speed and almost effortlessness of her arrival in awe. She had practically delivered herself, which made the experience of having her truly wonderful. I will never know, but I doubt it would have been so remarkable had it not been for those visits to Dr Wang.

WHAT IS IT?

ACUPUNCTURE is a branch of Chinese medicine that aims to balance the natural energy (qi) in the body by inserting needles into the skin. This regulates the qi flow along invisible paths.

SUITABLE FOR? Chinese doctors claim it is good for almost all problems. It is best known in the UK for controling pain and helping to give up smoking. It can also be used to treat headaches, colds, coughs and eczema.

COST Dr Wang charges £40 for the initial session and £30 a session thereafter. Call 020-8467 1204 or 01732 463778

WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE? DR TOBY MURCOTT

Can acupuncture induce labour? A small number of clinical trials suggest that it can but the evidence, as yet, is inconclusive.

Was baby Affrika’s arrival a coincidence? Possibly, but we’ll never know. Charles Rodeck, the Professor of Obstetrics at University College London, says the pattern of pregnancy is highly variable and just because three are late doesn’t mean the fourth will be, too.

Is it right for me? According to Sarah Budd, a midwifery sister and acupuncturist at the University of Exeter, it can be a useful alternative to conventional induction, particularly for women who have had a bad experience in the past. Even if it doesn’t induce labour, Budd says, it can help to ease the birth. But she stresses that acupuncture induction should be attempted only for good clinical reasons, not just for convenience.

Isn’t acupuncture used often in childbirth? Yes, it’s most often used for pain control and can be very effective. Sarah Budd has had considerable success in using it to manage pain in labour. Acupuncture appears to help where the baby is the wrong way around in the womb — breech presentation. Two studies, one published in the respected Journal of the American Medical Association, totalling 486 women, concluded that treatment increased the chance of the baby moving into the normal delivery position.