Raspberry leaf tea is a herbal infusion alleged to help with the process of labour. It's not to be used during early pregnancy, because the way it's supposed to work is by increasing the power of uterine contractions - something you don't want when the little occupant is so tiny and fragile.

General wisdom suggests that if you're pregnant, you start drinking it around 36 weeks and have about one cup a day, gradually increasing it so you're having 4 cups a day by 40 weeks. If you're not pregnant, you can drink it simply because you like the taste, or to help with painful menstrual cramps. It's about 99p for 20 teabags, which isn't bad as herbal teas go.

Buying the Heath and Heather teabags means you get a slightly nicer-tasting tea than the loose tea. H&H bags include a fair whack of hibiscus as well, which makes it a tastier but possibly less effective tea-drinking experience, depending on what your aim is. You can sweeten the tea with honey or sugar, and drink it cool or cold.

I had these for the first couple of weeks, but while my pregnant/mummy friends had reported an increase in the strength of their Braxton-Hicks contractions I did not, so I switched to the loose tea that doesn't have the tasty additions and dealt with the unadulterated grassy taste.

This is the thing: the tea tastes incredibly green and healthy, but it's not a taste that's pleasant. There's some pleasure in drinking it, but it's the same kind of pleasure you get from being at the gym - an experience that is at best neutral but gives you a feeling of virtuousness.

Did the tea work? I've got no idea. Other people say it worked wonders for them, but my little monster went overdue, had to be induced, and then refused to have anything to do with the labour process so was hauled out of the sunroof. I did get back to normal very quickly afterwards, though, which the midwives attributed to my tea-guzzling.

The tea won't send you into labour, but it's good for your body and may help with the birth process and the aftermath. It doesn't taste great, but neither do loads of other things that are good for you.