One of the most frustrating things about trying for a baby is that conception is kind of out of your hands.

Sure, you can follow all the ‘rules’; eat healthily, be a healthy weight, chart your cycle, take your vitamins; but at the end of the day, the right sperm has to meet the right egg at the right time, in the right conditions in your uterus.

I sometimes wonder how any babies are ever born, such is the list of things that can go wrong.

My problem is not that I can’t get pregnant, it is that I just seem to keep losing it once I do.

My consultant has not suggested any medical intervention is needed, so I am in the hands of Mother Nature to a great extent.

That is not an easy place to be, as many people who have ever tried for a baby will know.

It was the need to be doing something that made me consider acupuncture.

That coupled with the fact that I have not felt myself following my ERPC in January and the associated heavy blood loss and anaemia. For that story see here.

Many books and people have mentioned acupuncture and so, wanting to do whatever I can to make it more likely that I get pregnant again and carry a baby to full term, I decided to look into it.

I found a local clinic, plucked up the courage to find out more and make an appointment, and went along.

It is still early days, but I am finding that my acupuncturist is very perceptive and has picked up on my problems straight away.

Using my pulse and my tongue to diagnose me, she straight away said that I had not recovered from the trauma of five miscarriages in a year and that I was in no shape to conceive at the moment.

I knew this, but it was startling and a bit upsetting to hear it from somebody else.

After all, I have been left to fend for myself now by the NHS, because there is clinically nothing wrong with me. I am supposed to be young and strong and able to cope with whatever life throws at me.

I am human though and I need to recover and probably haven’t really allowed myself to do that, physically or emotionally.

I had signed up for fertility acupuncture, but my acupuncturist said that I needed to get myself right and that she wanted to help with this first.

My everyday symptoms include disrupted sleep, vivid dreams, light headedness, fatigue, feeling stressed and anxious and feeling physically, a bit pathetic really.

This is hardly an ideal starting point for growing another human.

She also said I am blood deficient and have too much cold, which I also know to be true as my feet are always cold.

I am building my strength and warming my body through the acupuncture and other methods, such as diet and resting.

She is concentrating on the three areas in which I am deficient of energy when placing the needles – spleen, liver and kidney – and it is making a difference already.

I have more stamina and feel a little stronger. I thought it was my age slowing me down. Instead it was my health.

I don’t expect a miracle cure but I am looking forward to feeling more like my old self, so I am going to keep going with the acupuncture for a while.

And no, before you ask, it doesn’t hurt as such. Sure, you feel pinpricks as the needles go in and some points are more painful than others, but if I, as a recovering needle-phobe, can cope, anyone can.

I look forward to sharing my progress.