I'm a health visitor

[HurricaneLane]

So you can AMA?

But as we seem to get such a bad reputation I'm thinking of starting a blog or a social media account to try and show that we are helpful, want to help and really aren't offering what people alot of the time think of us?

Can I ask if you would find this helpful, and whether a blog or social account would be better?

What's your salary?

How do you know if a family needs support? My HV experience - didn’t hear from them pre birth, rang at 4 weeks and said forgot to visit me post birth and finally came out to me me when baby was 6 weeks. Came, checked we had a cot, gave me a leaflet on weaning and left. Never to be seen again. How would she know if we are keeping our baby safe, if weight is ok… etc etc?

How much training do you get around babies/children with disabilities and special needs?
My experience with HVs is a long time ago but I do remember that my 1st HV was totally out of her depth with my DD. She was clueless with regards to who all the HCPs were who were involved in my DDs life and what there role was. She couldn't give advice on feeding - DD couldn't breast feed due to cleft lip/palate and weak muscle tone and never progressed beyond liquidised food (baby led weaning was unheard of back in the day).
HV2 for DS was equally useless. DS clearly had some issues with behaviour and socialising inspite of being an early walker/talker/reader. My concerns were always brushed under the carpet by the HV. DS was given an ASD diagnosis at age 7 - though it was clear to his pre school nursery that there were red flags.

So we do have training, but we also have a separate hv team for complex disabilities.
I'm sorry to hear about your experience, you would think those contacts would fuel a desire to learn surely?

For me, I would have awareness of this due to my nicu background and would be able to offer support from people I have met throughout my career who would be better suited but honestly you should know the important details about your families before you go or yes, you come across as quite poorly educated and tbh a visit could really waste your time as a parent

So in regards to how we know if your keeping your baby safe. We are really there to support you by relationship building and empowering you as parents. Concerns are picked up along the way but ultimately the responsibility is on the parents to look after and promote children's health and us being there to support. It's quite difficult as some families would like more, some would like less. Its not about deeming you competent to look after your child. I'm hoping that makes sense? Alot does get picked up antenatal and along the journey to school if it needs to.

My salary, I'm currently at B6 so before tax, nmc pin, and Union it's 33k, its very different to the 24k I started on as a band 5 on the wards it is reflective of the education and the changing system in my opinion especially due to the social care cases we have that the social workers cannot add to their overwhelmed caseloads.

Do you judge people for messy homes?

I liked all the HVs I met with my first btw. Found them helpful.

My friend's told her she must eat lots of cheese and eggs. She told her she ate neither (vegan) and the HV told her she must do, no question and not doing so would permanently damage her health (3 ish years ago). Is that the right sort of thing to say to someone about their veganism (which is a recognised belief under the equality act)?

Absolutely not, I'm not sure why she would have been told that

Absolutely not. It's a sign of a lived in home, we are all so very different!
I do think the families I meet would probably judge my messy home tbh, we all have different standards.

If its messy, fine if its dirty there's normally a reason why and I'm there to help and support and unpick why and help. There's always a reason and tbh it's my job to help

It feels like in London health visiting services are so stretched that other than post birth visit they basically only work with families with children's social services involvement. Do you think health visiting is still a universal service? Has funding been drastically cut?

Absolutely I think everyone could do with some contact with us, when you first have a baby it's not just overwhelming it's quite lonely.

So, funding as such no, workload yes. Childrens services but their thresholds up as they can't cope, especially post covid so that leaves a gap of children needing support not meeting threshold, therefore we pick up those children.

It means then my caseload is more this, and although I do my 5 mandated contacts for at least an hour it I just find my caseload very social care heavy which means sometimes if universal contacts call the service they may get through to someone who isn't me which to me diminished the continuity of care...
Hope that makes sense, it's a bit like your meant to see the same midwife throughout your visit and they are your point of contact...

I love my HV 😊

Can I ask a question about my dd:
She has just turned 1 and I have been meaning to ring the health visitor team with a couple of questions.

1. She was born at 37 +1 weeks on 50th centile. At 1 she is on about the 95th centile. Should I be worried about that weight gain? If so what can I do?
2. She doesn't walk independently yet but walks holding our fingers all the time. I have noticed when she does her ankles turn in- is this normal?

Obviously I will still ring the local health visitor if I am concerned but just thought I would take the opportunity to ask

So we ideally don't like children to jump up more than 2 centiles but she could be having a growth spurt, so defo book in for clinic.

With the walking every child is different so I'm afraid I can't say, for children who are born with ankles turning in we suggest massage, it does sound like it's on your mind so honestly please give your health visitor a ring, we love seeing the children as they grow:-)

Love this 😀

What support is available where mum and baby are achieving everything they need to but mum isn't coping? In 2019 when I had my daughter, I saw the HV once at 10 days, that was it. I was breastfeeding her (managed for almost 3 years in the end), she didn't lose any birth weight, and must have come across as quite competent as I guess she was clean, house was clean, we knew about safe sleep and car seats and there were no safeguarding concerns. One of those middle class families where no red flags are waving at all. But I was hideously depressed, had no family support, very lonely and overwhelmed and have no idea if I missed some support that would have been available or not.

My HV is lovely. I don’t see her much as we’re a core family but when I do, she’s always nice.

She never pushed me about breastfeeding (I really wanted to do this but had a huge PPH and so I didn’t produce any milk) I felt like an absolute failure but she told me that a baby with a full tummy was the most important thing. She’s never been pushy about anything.

Have you ever had to look after any abused or neglected children? If so, how do you compartmentalise that so it doesn’t affect you too much?

With my last baby, most of the job of health visitors seemed to be done by “nursery nurses”- is this typical and do they have any qualifications? I lost all trust in mine when I went to an education session and they confidently announced that breastfeeding “makes your baby 70% more intelligent” 🤔

So with mum's who follow a universal pathway we are aware things might look great but actually they are. We screen for depression and anxiety at all our visits ànd you should have had more so I'm sorry that happened to you.

All our nursery nurses are qualified to take a universal caseload often they have a wealth of knowledge and I often go to them for advice if I feel they will know more than me. They often become full health visitors too but some, which I can totally see why rather stay as they are!

Yes, I do see abused and neglected children and yes it is awful. The child is always at the forefront of contact but it is about the family and 'making every contact count'
We have regular supervision, often whenever we need it, sometimes within the hour.
For me, I make sure I get time for me. Cliche but a dog walk and some time to just breathe!

My only issue was someone constantly hiding "domestic violence" leaflets in my home.
I was not getting knocked about by any stretch of the imagination so no idea what had gotten into the HV but I used to get really offended by it.

Why did she do that? Did she think I was being hit? Or had she missed someone being hit before and wanted to cover her arse?

My health visitor pretty much judge's every decision I make for my DD. Why does it always feel that I'm not making the right decisions for her and being judged for it? She can come across very condescending and if I don't do it her way then I'm wrong.

That's not your role is it? I thought it was to support new families? So what is it that makes some (not all) health visitors think it's their way or the highway?

I am EBF, but it wasn't an easy road and I mentioned to my health visitor that we didn't mind giving formula when it was necessary or if she needs it. I got the response of "Well they say fed is best, but really you know, Breast is best"

Well I had a few HV’s as had to switch practices- they were all great.

The first time one of them came to the house I had put the dog in another room (Labrador, is overly social and thinks everyone wants to play) and she heard him whining and asked to see him.
Is this standard practice to flag up potentially dangerous dogs or pets? or was she just interested… always wondered!

Assuming you have a partner, this is actually really dangerous. If she thought you were experiencing abuse leaving leaflets where your partner might find them (which can be anywhere with someone abusive and controlling) could really escalate things. Better to ask surely?

The leaflets is really dangerous and a no! We tend to ask, or ask about family relationships.

The thing with advice is we have guidelines and policies we have to follow but we're their to support, no one should judge!

In respect to your dog, I'd have asked. Definitely not to worry about your dog, purely because I love dogs ! In fact I often chat about my own dog. Same if you have a horse. I'd have asked to see a picture because most of us are a friendly chatty bunch who love a chat, esp as work takes up most of our lives

Why even now in this post covid world do we still not have face to face availability of HV?

My 2 year old has been recently diagnosed with hip dysplasia and her orthopaedic consultant has said he has never had some many 2 and 3 year old on his books. He mentioned it's more than likely purely down to the lack of hands on care due to covid.

I had a 'lockdown baby' and I have to agree with the earlier comments along the lines of "what health visitor ?!"

We have seen the HV a grand total of twice (child is now over 2), and despite being born below the 9th centile and EBF when I asked for more weigh ins I was told I'd have to go to my GP and ask for them to weigh DD due to "my concerns". Very little support for a first time mum in a global pandemic! We also didn't get a 1 year check (or a 2 year check so far...). I'm fortunate that I know my child is doing well but could have done with the support regardless. Even when I rang and asked for more visits I was dismissed due to covid. No question really but I do worry for the families that may have slipped through the cracks with similar experiences to mine