Church halls, chipped mugs and confessions … antenatal classes aren’t that different from Alcoholics Anonymous | Amy Liptrot

Last time I was battling addiction and this time I’m growing a human, but the intimacy, inexperience, wisdom – and the level of gore – are pretty much the same

Medium pregnant with my first child and turning up nervously on a Tuesday evening to my first antenatal class, I was reminded of something by the circle of chairs, the sudden intimacy with strangers and the Jammie Dodgers. I had been here before, spending my evenings in church halls drinking tea from chipped mugs, talking about sleepless nights and shitting yourself: at Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings.

I’ve attended hundreds of AA groups, mostly in the first year or two after I stopped drinking, and on and off for years before that. I know how it is to be rattled and raw and facing something unknown. Back then, I wondered what life was going to look like without constantly being trolleyed; now I’m facing it with a small person to be responsible for. And as with the rehab I went to, when I see all these people at turning points in their lives with different stories about how they got here, as a writer I think: this is great material.

Related: Other people were alcoholics. I just liked a drink – or so I thought | Lucy Rocca

Continue reading... October 31, 2017 at 06:16PM