I've always wondered about this apparent misnomer. Complimentary means something is free of charge, but of course not so if it referes to therapies. Those are definitely NOT free of charge. In a strange course of events and coincidences (which of course have not deeper meaning than having the time and inclination to linger on such topics while trying to avoid serious stuff and work), just after I tried out reflexology for the first time ever and parted with an enormous amount of dosh, I read Derren Brown's rant about alternative medicine and the scientific proof that they don't have any effect other than that of a placebo.

To be honest, I didn't expect any other effect than that of a placebo. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally mental to part with a huge sum of money equivalent to 2 weeks of food supplies knowing that it's utterly wasted. It's just that I do honour the placebo effect. And more: who wouldn't appreciate one hour of undevided attention of another human being who listens to you, massages your feet, whom you can share all your frustrations of late pregnancy with without danger of being a moaner or seriously harming any existing friendship. Someone who doesn't know you or your history, won't ever see you again, who you can load off without any danger of longterm damage. I didn't expect more than that and as a one off, and after getting very frustrated indeed with the niggles of late pregnancy (which I know are normal and nothing really to worry about, but they can bring you real down), I thought I, and the people close to me, deserved it.

It was interesting then to observe how the reflexologist applied the cold questioning techniques that Derren Brown's book lucidly exposes. Just that there was no need for real cold questioning: I had actually written down my main niggles on a form. Still, she poked at one toe claiming I must suffer from sleepless nights. I think about 99% of 39 weeks pregnant women don't sleep well, so it was a safe bet for her, just that I actually sleep very well indeed. She definitely needs to work on her cold questioning technique because she didn't accept my answer and insisted that the toe spoke a different story... The same was repeated with another toe which apparently represents my gums. Again, I have no outstanding issues with my gums - they are quite happy where they are and not too bothered by the hormones that are supposed to make them go all inflamed and bleedy. They are happy as ever. But maybe the toe representing gums and sleep isn't feeling so well because it's squashed by an extra 15kg???

So eventually reflexologist reverts to the bits that I actually mentioned as being troublesome and just got on with massaging the achey feet (call it reflexology, all I want is a  nice foot massage!). It was lovely though. After 2 hours, my feet were back to their monstrous size, but for the rest of the day, my mind felt better, giving me some rest from the continuous feeling of being ill at ease and the wavering between wanting the baby out and feeling unprepared to dealing with motherhood.

At the same time, I felt bad for overanalysing yet again, instead of just enjoying the moment, and for overanalysing hypnosis which is meant to help me through labour. Sometimes it would be good to switch my analytical mind off for a while and just believe it'll work 100%.