The arrival of twins marked a fresh start for two women � a change of lifestyle, a new career and a lasting friendship

Dee Armstrong, 42, conception coach

RACHAEL and I met six years ago when I was 36 weeks pregnant with twins. I had three or four acupuncture sessions with her to try to help me go into labour, and we really clicked. I knew she was someone I would get on with, but was obviously a bit distracted at the time. We bumped into each other a few months later in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, when I was out pushing the pram. She pointed to the twins and said, "Oh, here they are " and I was able to show her my new baby boys, Tom and Paddy.

We have a mutual friend called Caitlin Heavey, who had recommended Rachael to me as an acupuncturist. Caitlin was instrumental in getting us together as friends, organising a girly night with several bottles of wine for the three of us.

Before getting pregnant I had researched fertility awareness after coming across it in a book. Rachael was into the idea of us joining forces and over the next couple of years she nagged me to get qualified, which I did. Before I was a hospital manager - now I get double-takes when people find out what I do. The qualification I have is "Accredited Fertility Awareness Practitioner", which doesn't trip off the tongue, so one of my friends came up with the idea of "conception coach".

Rachael and I are like chalk and cheese. She is very considered, thoughtful and, while not exactly shy, she can be introverted. I'm much more direct, say what's on my mind and talk ten to the dozen. On many occasions Rachael has had to talk me down when I have been squaring up to someone.

Rachael is a single mum and my husband, Simon, works away from home a lot, but occasionally we manage to get two sets of babysitters. We both have a bit of a thing for Daniel Craig. Rachael said recently, "Let's watch the new James Bond film with a couple of bottles of wine." In the end - and this always happens - the DVD never made it into the machine. Instead we sat there for about five hours, just chatting away.

I find it amusing that when Rachael and I met she was using acupuncture to help induce my labour. Now people come to see me because they can't get pregnant and I help them. Rachael looks after them all through their pregnancy and then induces them at the other end. We're there for the whole journey.

Rachael Forrest, 42, acupuncturist

MY relationship with Dee has gone from professional to friend to professional-dash-friend. During her pregnancy with the twins I treated her a few times to help induce her and she went into labour. Having bumped into each other a few months later, we got chatting and arranged to meet up. We ended up speaking a lot about fertility, which was a topic Dee was already very interested in.

She wasn't happy in her job as a hospital manager. She used to moan about it, so I urged her to do some professional training in fertility. She left her job and initially set up on her own. I had set up the Edinburgh Natural Fertility Clinic, and when that started to take off I nagged Dee to join us, which she did.

I would describe our relationship as mutually supportive. Dee is great fun. She is very straight-talking whereas I'm a bit of a dreamer. She cuts through all that. We are alike in a lot of ways and definitely share a similar sense of humour. We find quite obtuse things funny, particularly real life situations that go badly wrong. We are both proactive and when we come up with new ideas will say, "Right, let's do this, let's try that."

She is very good at working out the details, whereas I'm better at coming up with ideas. Dee has a much quicker temper than I do and I think she sometimes gets a bit cross with me because I'm more passive.

Anyone with twins needs a lot of support, so Dee and I speak a lot on the phone in the evenings, once the children are in bed. Dee will call if she's upset because she lost her temper with the boys and I'll reassure her. I'm on my own with my two daughters, Amber, eight, and Heidi, six, and Dee is really good at ringing me up, asking how I'm doing and just listening when I need to talk.

We enjoy spending time together and love to go out for a nice dinner with white wine - that's our big thing. Mostly, though, Dee will come round to mine and we'll watch a DVD. It's the chat and the wine that's most important. We tend to mix work talk with other chat, but we always have a laugh. That's one of the things I like most.

Interviews by Susan Swarbrick