
There are plenty of things about pregnancy I didn't love. Needing to wee all the time. Going up a shoe size. Having nipples so big you could find them in the dark. But there was one unexpected upside: When I stopped drinking while I was pregnant, my crippling anxiety evaporated. Poof! It was gone.
I didn't lay in bed at night with insomnia, replaying my worst moments and biggest failures at three in the morning. I no longer beat myself up about that stupid thing I'd said at dinner after half a dozen drinks. I wasn't worried about whether or not a mate was mad at me.
Was it hormones? A coincidence? Or was it the fact I'd given up booze for the first time in over a decade?
A pregnant pause.
You see, before embarking on motherhood, I was what you'd call a 'default drinker.' If someone offered me a glass of rosé, it was an automatic yes, without a second thought about whether I truly wanted it or how it might make me feel later.