Husband Asks for Advice When His Pregnant Wife Won’t Stop Drinking

A lot goes through your mind upon finding out your pregnant: You’re going to be a parent! You have to start planning the nursery! And taking baby classes! And oh yeah…stop all alcohol use at once.

While research shows a small amount of alcohol is sometimes okay to drink while pregnant (as long as your doctor approves), but large amounts have been known to potentially cause harmful effects to your baby. Most women limit or completely avoid alcohol when they’re pregnant.

However, one man recently turned to Reddit to vent about his pregnant wife—who won’t stop drinking. In his post, he explained that their pregnancy wasn’t planned, but they’re still going to be keeping the baby—but his wife isn’t exactly acting like it.

“She drinks multiple glasses of wine sometimes, and sometimes stronger alcohol (vodka, whisky, etc.),” he wrote in the post. “I’ve stopped buying any, but she gets it herself.”

He went on to say that the doctor only approved her to drink no more than a glass of wine or one beer a day, but she’s gone well beyond. He’s worried that she could be doing harm to their baby, especially since it’s an issue that h holds near and dear to his heart.

“My brother has FAS [fetal alcohol syndrome], and I know how terrible it is,” he explained.

Ultimately, he knows that he doesn’t want to be with his wife anymore, but doesn’t know how to approach it.

“I don’t know what I can even do,” he wrote. “I want to get a divorce, but I think she would drink even more if I wasn’t here.”

We can definitely see the problem. And the Reddit world is responding with an outpouring of advice.

The general consensus among the posters is that he needs to either get his wife help or get out of the relationship and seek custody of the child.

She’s an alcoholic. I suggest you get in contact with Al-Anon which is for the friends and family of alcoholics,” one person wrote. “I also think you should contact her [general practitioner] with this information. It may impact the treatment she needs, and they may also be able to encourage her towards rehab.”

“Well that’s alcoholism, brother,” another wrote. “Contact her doctor, and get her into treatment. Doing nothing and waiting for a damaged child to be born, THEN bailing would make you evil beyond belief. Act now to save your soul.”

There’s a lot of great advice in the comment thread, in case you know anyone going through something similar. Be sure to check it out or leave a piece of advice for your own.

What advice would you give this man?